Portal:Birds

Birds are amazing creatures that can fly, sing, and live in almost every part of the world. They come in many shapes and sizes, from the tiny bee hummingbird to the large emuwren. Birds are important because they help plants grow by spreading seeds and pollen. They also eat insects and other small animals, which helps keep the balance of nature.

Many birds are known for their beautiful songs, like the nightingale and the robin. Some birds, such as penguins, cannot fly, but they are excellent swimmers. Birds have special feathers that help them fly and keep them warm.

People have always been fascinated by birds. They appear in myths, stories, and art from many cultures around the world. Watching birds can be a fun and relaxing hobby, called birdwatching. There are thousands of bird species, and each one has its own unique way of living and behaving.

Sadly, some bird populations are decreasing because of habitat loss and climate change. Protecting bird habitats is important to ensure that these wonderful creatures continue to thrive. By learning about birds, we can better understand and appreciate the natural world around us.

The Birds Portal

Birds are warm-blooded animals with feathers and beaks, belonging to the group Aves. They lay hard-shelled eggs, have a high metabolism, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live all over the world, ranging from the tiny bee hummingbird to the large common ostrich. There are over 11,000 different species of birds, many of which can fly, though some like penguins and ratites have lost this ability.

Birds evolved from ancient reptiles and are the only living dinosaurs. They first appeared during the time of the Late Jurassic and diversified greatly after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Many birds are social, communicating through calls and songs, and often work together to raise their young. They are important to humans as a source of food, pets, and even fertilizer from guano. However, many bird species are threatened with extinction due to human activity, and conservation efforts are helping to protect them.

Featured articles

The western yellow robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis) is a species of bird in the Australasian robin family, Petroicidae, native to Australia. It has grey upperparts and a yellow belly, and it lives in open woodlands and scrub. This small bird mainly eats insects and builds a cup-shaped nest in trees.

The ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus) is a medium-sized thrush found mainly in Europe. Males are black with a white crescent, while females are browner. It breeds in mountain areas and migrates to southern Europe and North Africa in winter. It eats invertebrates, fruit, and small vertebrates.

The pale crag martin (Ptyonoprogne obsoleta) is a small swallow bird found in Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia. It nests on cliffs or buildings, hunting insects in flight. Unlike many swallows, it lives far from water.

The black honeyeater (Sugomel nigrum) is a bird endemic to Australia, found in arid areas. Males are black and white, while females are speckled grey-brown. It feeds on nectar, insects, and even ash from campfires, building cup-shaped nests in shrubs.

The Papuan mountain pigeon (Gymnophaps albertisii) lives in New Guinea and surrounding islands. This medium-sized pigeon has slate-grey upperparts and chestnut throats. It eats figs and drupes and is very social, often seen in flocks.

The large rock martin (Ptyonoprogne fuligula) is a small passerine bird found in southern Africa. It nests on cliffs or buildings, hunting insects in flight. Unlike most swallows, it often lives far from water.

The elfin woods warbler (Setophaga angelae) is a bird found only in Puerto Rico. It feeds on small insects and lives in protected forests. Conservation efforts help protect its small population from threats.

The macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) is found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. Known for its yellow crest, this flightless penguin eats krill, fish, and squid. It breeds in large colonies and is the most numerous penguin species, though its numbers are declining.

The hooded pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) is a bird found in New Guinea. It is one of the few poisonous birds, with toxins in its skin and feathers that may deter predators. This bird lives in forests and eats fruits, seeds, and invertebrates.

Selected general bird topic

Vision is very important for birds. Birds have excellent eyesight, which helps them fly safely. Their eyes are special and can change shape quickly, giving them better vision than many other animals.

Some birds, like birds of prey, have even better vision to see far away and judge distances accurately. Nocturnal birds, which are active at night, have eyes made for seeing in the dark. Seabirds such as terns, gulls, and albatrosses have special colour filters in their eyes to see better over water. (Full article...)

Selected taxon

Flamingos are special kinds of wading bird that belong to the family Phoenicopteridae. There are four types of flamingos found in the Americas, including the Caribbean, and two types that live in Afro-Eurasia. A group of flamingos is called a "flamboyance" or a "stand".

Topics

Birds are fascinating creatures with many interesting aspects. You can learn about their Anatomy such as their Flight, Eggs, and Feathers.

You can also explore how birds have Evolved over time, their Behaviour like Singing and Migration, and the many different Bird orders like Penguins, Owls, and Parrots. There are also many Bird lists and topics about how birds interact with Humans, such as Birdwatching and Conservation.

Quotes

Douglas Adams once said something wonderful about birds. You can find more quotes about birds by clicking ...All quotes.

Resources

You can explore many great online resources to learn more about birds. SORA offers archives of bird research journals like The Auk, The Condor, and Journal of Field Ornithology. For birds in New Zealand and the South Pacific, check out Notornis, the journal of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand.

BirdLife International provides detailed information about bird species worldwide. Birds of North America is a special project from Cornell University that collects information on birds that breed in North America.

WikiProjects

The WikiProject Birds is a group that helps improve all articles about birds on Wikipedia. Other related groups include WikiProject Science, WikiProject History of Science, WikiProject Tree of Life, WikiProject Biology, WikiProject Ecology, and WikiProject Extinction. These groups work together to make sure information about nature and science is accurate and easy to understand.

Selected images

The Red-whiskered bulbul is a colorful bird often found in gardens. The Wood Duck is known for its bright feathers and is native to North America.

The Australian Wood Duck lives in wooded swamps and marshes across Australia. The Wandering albatross is one of the largest seabirds, found in the seas around Antarctica.

Other notable birds include the Northern gannet, Long-billed curlew, and Golden Parakeet, each with unique habitats and characteristics. The Prothonotary warbler breeds in hardwood swamps in Canada and the United States.

The Bufflehead is a small sea duck with a distinctive bulbous head shape. The Chinstrap penguin is found in the Southern Pacific and Antarctic Oceans, known for its black and white markings.

The American Wigeon is a common duck in northern North America. The Dusky Myzomela is a honeyeater bird found in Oceania and the Malay archipelago.

The Paddyfield pipit is a small bird native to southern Asia. The Ring-billed gull is found near lakes and rivers in Canada and the northern United States.

The Cape Barren Goose is a large goose native to southern Australia. The Shy Albatross is a medium-sized albatross found in the Southern Ocean.

The Willow tit is a small bird found in Europe and northern Asia. The European robin is a small bird with an orange breast, found across Europe and into Western Siberia.

Feathers are special coverings that make birds unique among all living animals. The Red crossbill is another interesting bird species with distinctive markings.

Selected bird anatomy topic

A comb is a special fleshy growth or crest on the top of the head of some birds, like domestic chickens. It is usually larger on male birds, called cocks, than on female birds, called hens. Along with wattles and earlobes, the comb is part of the caruncles, which are fleshy bumps on a chicken's head. In turkeys, these caruncles appear as nodules on the head and throat. Chicken combs are often red but can also be black or dark purple in certain breeds like the Silkie or the Sebright. Other birds may have combs in colors ranging from light grey to deep blue or red.

Selected species

The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is a member of the dove family Columbidae. It is also called the American mourning dove and lives from Central America to southern Canada. Many mourning doves in the north migrate south for the winter. They live in open areas, including farms and cities, and are very common, with about 130 million of them. People often hunt mourning doves for sport, and their soft, plaintive call is familiar to many.

Mourning doves are light grey and brown and look similar whether they are male or female. They usually mate for one breeding season and have two young at a time, called squabs. Both the male and female help take care of the young. These birds can have several families throughout the year, sometimes up to six in warmer places. They mainly eat seeds from many kinds of plants.

Did you know

Did you know that the blue-throated piping-guan is a bird from South America that looks similar to a turkey? Even though it is very small, only eight inches tall, the tiny hawk is a skilled hunter that lives in the Neotropics and catches hummingbirds. In Australia, the blue-faced honeyeater is sometimes called the "bananabird" because it loves to eat bananas!

Categories

Birds are amazing creatures with many different categories to explore. You can find groups such as Birds by location, which shows birds from different parts of the world, and Bird anatomy, which looks at the body parts that make birds special. There are also categories like Bird behavior to learn how birds act and interact, and Bird conservation to discover how we help protect birds.

Other interesting groups include Flightless birds, which are birds that cannot fly, and Hybridisation in birds, which shows how sometimes birds from different types can create new kinds of birds. Exploring these categories can help you learn lots of fun facts about birds!

Related portals

Here are some other interesting topics you might enjoy exploring:

• Biology
• Ecology
• Dinosaurs

Things you can do

Main article: WikiProject Birds – Article requests

You can help improve the bird articles on this portal by working on articles that need attention. There are many tasks you can do to help, and you can find more information at the project's cleanup listing, Category:Birds articles needing attention, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds/Todo.

Taxonomy of Aves

Birds, scientifically known as Aves, are a diverse group of feathered vertebrates. They are part of the larger group of animals called avian dinosaurs, which means they share a common ancestor with dinosaurs from millions of years ago. There are over 10,000 species of birds living today, ranging from tiny hummingbirds to large eagles.

All birds have feathers, which help them fly, but not all birds can fly — for example, penguins and ostriches are flightless. Birds also have beaks, hollow bones, and lay hard-shelled eggs. They are found all around the world, from mountains to forests to cities.

Associated Wikimedia

The Wikimedia Foundation has many sister projects that offer more information about birds. These include Commons, a free media repository; Wikibooks, for free textbooks and manuals; and Wikidata, a free knowledge base. Other useful projects are Wikinews for news, Wikiquote for quotations, Wikisource as a library, Wikispecies for species information, Wikiversity for learning tools, Wikivoyage as a travel guide, and Wiktionary as a dictionary.