Features of poultry feeding. What separates birds from all other animals What distinguishes birds from other animals

Although birds belong to the Kingdom of Animals, they have a number of such adaptations and abilities that significantly distinguish them from all their "colleagues" in the taxon.

Definition

Birds- these are animals whose body is covered with feathers, and the front limbs have changed into wings. With their help, birds fly. About 10 thousand species of birds live on Earth.

Animals Is a grandiose kingdom of living organisms, which includes 34 types and about 50 million species of creatures of various levels of organization.

Comparison

Birds are warm-blooded animals. They can fly. This skill determined the morphological and anatomical features of these organisms. The forelimbs of the birds were transformed into wings. Additional adaptations for regulated flight are the tail and massive, muscular legs, which help the animals during takeoff and landing.

Animals can be warm-blooded (birds and mammals), cold-blooded (fish, amphibians and reptiles). Most types and species of animals have no blood at all (sponges, tunicates, or flatworms).

The body of birds is covered with differentiated feathers, which perform a number of functions - from providing streamlining of the body during flight to reducing the heat loss of a small body. The body of animals, in addition to feathers, can be covered with epidermis, scales, skin, chitinous cover, or protected with shells.

All bird bones are as lightweight as possible, but strong. All parts of the ridge, except for the cervical, differ in the fusion of the vertebrae - this ensures the fusion and immobility of the bird's body, which is important for the flight process. Only birds have a keel, as well as a long and highly mobile neck. A significant number of types and species of animals, except for chordates, do not have an internal skeleton at all. An external skeleton is characteristic of arthropods.

The beak opens the digestive system of birds. The metabolism of these animals takes place at an accelerated rate in order to provide the animals with the energy they need for flight. The circulatory, respiratory and excretory systems of unique flying animals operate in the same “maximum efficiency” mode.

Birds have a developed brain and a very high intelligence. These animals reproduce with the help of internal fertilization, laying eggs, incubating and teaching offspring.

Intelligence higher than that of a bird is recorded only in representatives of the class of Mammals. For the bulk of animals, internal and external fertilization, as well as parthenogenesis, are characteristic. The total mass of animals can increase the number of individuals by live birth, egg-laying and ovoviviparity.

Conclusions site

1. The concept of "animals" is more voluminous than the concept of "birds", and the number of bird species is much less than the total number of animal species.
2. Almost all birds can fly, or their ancestors did it. The overwhelming majority of animals do not have this ability.
3. Birds are exceptionally warm-blooded creatures. Animals can be warm and cold-blooded, and generally devoid of blood.
4. Birds are able to fly with their wings, unlike the rest of the biomass of the animal kingdom.
5. The skeleton of birds has a number of unique adaptations that ensure the ability to fly.
6. Only birds have feathers and beaks.
7. The main life systems work in birds at an accelerated rate.
8. Unlike the bulk of animals, birds have a fixed intelligence.

What are the external signs that distinguish a bird from other animals? and got the best answer

Answer from Ђatiana Nuzhin [guru]
Characteristics of the class BIRDS
Birds are a class of vertebrates, whose representatives are well characterized by the fact that their body is covered with feathers and the front limbs are modified into flight organs - wings. With rare exceptions, birds are flying animals, and those species that do not fly have underdeveloped wings. To move on a hard substrate, birds use the hind limbs - legs. Thus, birds, unlike all other terrestrial vertebrates, are bipedal animals. Birds have a very vigorous metabolism, body temperature is constant and high, the heart is four-chambered, arterial blood is separated from venous blood. The large hemispheres of the brain and the sense organs, especially vision and hearing, are well developed.
From a biological point of view, the most characteristic features of birds are, on the one hand, the intensity of metabolism, the intensity of the course of life processes, and on the other hand, movement through the air by flight. These two main traits of birds largely determine their biology. It is these properties of birds that fundamentally distinguish them from other groups of vertebrates. Despite the common evolutionary origin of birds and reptiles, the biological differences between these two groups of animals are enormous.
In terms of mobility and the ability to overcome space, birds rank first among terrestrial vertebrates. Great mobility is associated with great work of the muscles, with a large expenditure of energy, which requires quick and intense compensation. Despite the fact that the lungs of birds are low stretchable and relatively small. the use of oxygen in them and the supply of oxygen to the body in birds is very intensive, which is explained by the action of the system of air sacs. The active part of the respiratory process in birds, unlike other vertebrates, occurs not only during inhalation, but also during exhalation. The significance of this for the intensification of metabolism in the body is obvious. Arterial blood is completely separated from venous blood, and the work of the heart is very energetic. In this regard, there is also an energetic work of the digestive organs: the bird consumes a large amount of food, and its assimilation proceeds quickly and very completely. All these features are closely related to the presence of a constant body temperature in birds (and the latter to the development of a heat-insulating cover of feathers). The body temperature in birds is higher than in mammals, most often it is close to 42 ° C, in a few species it drops below 39 ° C, but often reaches 45 and 45.5 ° C.
Of the other very significant features of the biology and structure of birds, above mention also the features of reproduction. Compared with reptiles, there is, firstly, a weak intensity of reproduction, and secondly, the complexity of the biological phenomena accompanying reproduction, and in particular the complexity of the phenomena of caring for the offspring. The latter, as it were, compensates for the low fertility. The entire evolution of birds proceeded in close connection with their acquisition of the ability to fly. The emergence of the basic biological and anatomical features of the avian organism should have occurred simultaneously with the emergence and development of mobility in them, and the improvement of their motor capabilities. Paleontological material shows that at a certain stage of evolutionary development, the ancestors of birds were terrestrial running reptiles.

Answer from Inna Kalieva[guru]
Feathers, wings, beak

Answer from Vadim Kotik[guru]
Wings, feathers and beak

Answer from User deleted[newbie]
well, firstly, feathers, secondly, beak ...

Answer from Yanina[guru]
Feathers, beak

Answer from Anyutka Ulyanova[active]
Feathers! And the platypus also has a beak, which, as you know, is not a bird

Answer from B and x p b[guru]
Wings and beak.

Answer from Igor Gosudarev[guru]
Birds do not have a penis. Seem like that ... A platypus has a beak, and someone also has a semblance of feathers, I don’t remember exactly who. Mice have wings, but they are not birds.

The bird differs from other animals in the structure of the digestive system, in the greater intensity of metabolic processes. This is due to its high early maturity and productivity. During the first 50 days of life, the average weight of meat chickens and ducklings in comparison with the weight at birth increases 40 times, goslings - 35 times.
The bird has no teeth in the mouth, it grabs food with its beak and swallows it whole. In ducks and geese, transverse skin plates are located along the edge of the beak, which help to tear off the grass and separate solid particles from the liquid feed.
From the oral cavity, food, only slightly moistened with saliva, enters the esophagus. In granivorous birds, the esophagus expands before entering the chest cavity, forming a goiter. In geese and ducks, there is a slight expansion of the esophagus at the site of the goiter. Getting into the crop, the food swells, softens under the influence of moisture and temperature, as a result, part of the nutrients becomes a soluble state. From the goiter, food gradually passes into a small-volume glandular stomach and is exposed to the enzyme pepsin and hydrochloric acid. Then it enters the muscular stomach, where, with the help of a hard cornea and gravel, it is thoroughly rubbed and mixed with gastric juice from the glandular stomach. From the gizzard, food enters the intestines, where it is digested in a slightly acidic environment.
Poultry digestion is much faster than that of other animals. For example, in chickens, feed passes through the alimentary canal in 4-5 hours, in an adult bird, in 7-8 hours. Mealy forages have a significantly higher speed of passage and digestibility. This feature of poultry digestion is taken into account when preparing combined feeds, where all grain feeds are first crushed for better mixing, and then the finished mixture is granulated. The pellet diameter for an adult bird is approximately equal to the grain size of wheat. Young poultry granules are pre-crushed and fed in the form of crumbs.
Poultry digests fiber and organic matter of feed worse than other animal species. In chickens, the coefficients of fiber digestibility in different feeds range from 0 to 20-25%. Nitrogen-free extractives from feed with a low fiber content (3-5%) are digested by chickens by 80-90%, and with a high fiber content (20-30%) - only by 25-34%. Geese digest oat grain fiber only by 10-12%. According to current regulations, the maximum fiber content in the diets of laying hens and chickens should not exceed 4-7%, and in the diets of turkeys and geese - 6-10%. With a lack of fiber in the diets, digestion is disturbed, productivity decreases, which can cause pecking and death of the bird.
In the digestive tract of poultry, complex organic substances are broken down to simpler compounds: proteins to amino acids, carbohydrates to monosaccharides, fats to glycerol and fatty acids. Absorbed into the blood, these substances are carried to all organs and tissues of the body, used to create new and restore old cells, the formation of digestive juices, the synthesis of enzymes, hormones, vitamins. At the same time, the body is constantly breaking down and oxidizing complex organic substances. The released energy is used to maintain body temperature, work muscles, and synthesize new compounds.
The metabolic rate depends on the physiological state, age and productivity of the bird, as well as on the amount and ratio of nutrients entering the body. For normal functioning of the body, it is necessary for the bird to consume a certain amount of water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins daily.
The metabolism in the body of a bird takes place with the use of energy that comes with food. The productivity of a bird is 40-50% dependent on its energy supply. In poultry farming, the energetic nutritional value of feed and feed mixtures is expressed in megajoules and kilocalories of metabolic energy.
Metabolic energy is an indicator of the energy value of feed and the provision of poultry with energy due to nutrients in the diet, depending on species differences and physiological state.
In poultry feeding, a definite relationship was found between the level of metabolic energy and crude protein in the diet. When there is a lack of metabolizable energy, crude protein is used by the body for energy purposes, which is accompanied by an increase in feed consumption and consumption per unit of production. With an excess of metabolic energy in the body of the bird, an intensive deposition of fat occurs. Especially undesirable is an excess of energy in feed for replacement chickens and hens of the meat line, since in this case there is a rapid obesity and a sharp decrease in the egg production of an adult bird.
Metabolic Energy to Protein Ratio in Poultry Diet - Energy Protein Ratio (EPO) shows how much metabolizable energy is available for each percentage of crude protein. In 1 kg of feed with an optimal energy-protein ratio, high egg production of chickens during the entire productive period and intensive growth of young stock are provided.
Protein has a major impact on health, poultry performance and product quality. The need for protein depends on the physiological state, feeding conditions and keeping the birds. Both too much and too little protein are undesirable.
Protein usefulness of poultry feeding is determined not only by the level of crude protein, but also by the content of amino acids in compound feed (see Appendix 10). It has been established that poultry's need for protein is satisfied by 40-45% by essential amino acids, and the rest is compensated by nonessential amino acids.
In case of imbalance in the amino acid composition of the diet, malabsorption of certain amino acids may be observed. For example, methionine can inhibit the absorption of leucine and phenylalanine and vice versa. When the level of lysine in the ration rises by 20%, the growth rate of the chicks is sharply reduced and the feed cost increases.
In poultry diets, the content of lysine, methionine, methionine + cystine, tryptophan, arginine, histidine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, phenylalanine + tyrosine, threonine, valine and glycine is normalized. When balancing the nutritional value of feed mixtures in terms of amino acid composition, it is necessary to accurately normalize the addition of synthetic amino acid preparations, since the need for amino acids depends on the level of crude protein in the diet.
In the current norms of poultry feeding, the need for metabolizable energy and other substances is characterized by their content in 100 g of complete feed (see Appendix 11).
The need for protein in poultry depends on the availability of nitrogen in feed, their amino acid composition, a balanced diet, ambient temperature and other factors. In diets full of amino acid composition, the protein level can be reduced by 5-10%. There is a close relationship between the use of amino acids in the body of a bird and the provision of diets with vitamins, especially of group B. With a lack of vitamins, metabolism is disturbed, the growth of young animals slows down, egg production, the quality of eggs and poultry meat decrease. To ensure that the poultry needs for vitamins, they are additionally introduced into compound feed (see Appendix 12).
Of the minerals in compound feed, the amount and ratio of calcium and phosphorus are primarily taken into account. In case of calcium deficiency, chalk, limestone, and shell are added to the compound feed. Sources of phosphorus and calcium are bone meal, mono-, di- and tricalcium phosphate, defluorinated phosphate.
Balancing the diet for sodium is carried out at the expense of table salt.
The poultry's need for microelements is satisfied by guaranteed additions of manganese, zinc, iron, copper, cobalt and iodine in the form of salts, which are introduced into compound feed, as a rule, as part of vitamin and mineral premixes. Special prophylactic preparations, enzymes and antioxidants are also added to feed mixtures for poultry.

TO bird class include warm-blooded vertebrates adapted to flight. Birds are highly organized vertebrates that are widespread on Earth. The total number of species is more than 8500.

Birds differ from all other animals in many structural and biological features associated with flight. An important sign of birds - feather cover... Their aircraft is built from feathers; many vital processes of these animals are associated with them. Feathers are different in structure and function. Feathers lying outside with wide and dense blades are called outline... Under them are located downy feathers.

Main part outline pen- long barrel. The thick end of the trunk entering the skin is called ochin(he was sharpened when he wrote with pens), the trunk does not have a cavity above the point, it is called rod to which is attached fan- a wide blade of a feather that forms a flying surface. Each half of the fan consists of thin horny plates - beard, even thinner processes branch off from each of them - barbs, ending in hooks, with which they cling to the barbs of neighboring barbs (barbs of the first order, barbs of the second order). A feather of such a structure has great resistance to the air, and at the same time, it is very light, which is important when flying.

Under the contour pens there are down feathers whose barbs do not have hooks and do not connect to each other. Therefore, down feathers are always fluffy and very light. Between them, air is retained, which is characterized by poor thermal conductivity, due to which the bird's body is very well protected from heat loss. Thus, feathers serve not only for flight, but also for thermoregulation.

The contour feathers form the flying surface of the wing, which is why they are called flywheels... The role of the bird's rudder is played by long contoured feathers, which are called helmsmen.

With the great work that feathers perform, they quickly wear out, which is why the phenomenon of molting in birds is associated (2-3 times a year). Moulting is especially painful for geese and ducks, since all flight feathers fall out at once. Then the birds become completely helpless and need special protection from poachers.

The head of birds is small and light, the chewing muscles are greatly reduced: the jaws are thin, covered with light horny sheaths, forming beak... A well-developed neck provides head mobility. The body is dense, streamlined. The forelimbs have become organs of flight - wings... The hind limbs of most birds are small, in flight they are pressed against the body. Many birds have four toes on their hind legs: three are facing forward, and the fourth is backward ( tarsus).

The tubular bones of birds, unlike other terrestrial vertebrates, do not contain bone marrow and are filled with air. They are lightweight and very transparent. Even the dense and strong bones of the skull of birds are thin and light, growing together to form a very strong skull. The reduction in skeletal mass is facilitated by the shortening of the caudal spine and the absence of a number of bones. Thus, the skeleton of birds is very strong and at the same time extremely lightweight. In addition, the skeleton has other adaptations for flight: the lumbar and sacral vertebrae are firmly connected, being a support for the body. Ribs are attached to the thoracic vertebrae, which connect from the ventral side to the sternum, forming the ribcage. There is a large protrusion on the sternum - keel, well-developed muscles are attached to it, which set the wing in motion. In the skull of birds, a large rounded cerebral box with large eye sockets and elongated jaw bones, devoid of teeth, are distinguished.

The skin of the birds is dry. At the base of the tail feathers, almost all birds have coccygeal gland releasing an oily liquid. The bird lubricates the feathers with it, which prevents them from getting wet and makes them elastic. The location of the muscles in the body of the bird is peculiar: there are almost none of them on the dorsal side, the bulk is on the abdominal side and the pectoral muscles, as well as the muscles of the lower leg and thigh, are especially strongly developed.

Due to the absence of teeth in birds, there are a number of features in the structure and work of the digestive organs. The esophagus of birds forms a protrusion - goiter, where food gradually accumulates, here it is moistened and softened and then enters the stomach, which consists of two sections: glandular and muscular... In the glandular, food is processed chemically, under the action of gastric juice. In the muscular section, birds have small pebbles, with which food is ground, crushed and even more dissolved. Further, the food is processed by the bile of the liver and pancreatic juice and, absorbed by the walls of the short intestine, is assimilated. Digestion takes place in birds quickly, undigested food residues do not linger in the hind gut and are thrown out. All of this is of great importance when flying.

Respiratory organs in birds... The lungs of birds differ from the bag-like lungs of amphibians and from the cellular lungs of reptiles. The lungs of birds have a spongy structure. The bronchi entering them repeatedly branch. A number of bronchial branching ends in the lung cavity, and some, leaving them, expand, forming air bags, which are located between muscles, internal organs and in the tubular bones. Resting breathing is carried out through the expansion and contraction of the chest. Such breathing is impossible in flight. At this time, it is carried out as follows: with each flap of the wing, the air bags are stretched and filled with air, when the wings are lowered, the bags are compressed and the air goes out through the lungs. Thanks to this, the air automatically passes through the lungs twice, and the birds, even during very fast flight, do not suffer from shortness of breath.

Circulatory organs in birds... The heart of birds, unlike reptiles, four-chamber: consists of two atria and two ventricles. The left half of the heart contains arterial blood, the right half contains venous blood. The movement of blood occurs, as in amphibians and reptiles, in two circles of blood circulation. But arterial blood never mixes with venous blood. Thereby birds have a constant body temperature, in many cases higher than in humans (40-45 ° C). True, in chicks it hesitates, and they need to be warmed. Birds are warm-blooded animals.

Excretory organs of birds - paired kidneys... From them, the ureters depart, through which urine enters the cloaca. The bladder is missing.

Bird brain, in comparison with that of fish, amphibians, reptiles, is more developed, especially cerebellum ensuring coordination of movements, and large hemispheres, which leads to a more complex behavior of birds. From sense organs the organs of sight and hearing are most developed. The eyes of birds, like those of reptiles, are equipped with three eyelids: the upper, lower and nictitating membrane.

The organ of hearing consists of three sections: internal, middle and outdoor auditory opening.

Reproduction and development of birds

Birds are dioecious. The male develops two testis, in the female - one ovary... Brood tubes (two vas deferens or oviduct) extend from the reproductive organs to the cloaca. The eggs mature gradually and are laid one at a time at regular intervals. Unlike reptiles, all birds, except for weed chickens, hatch eggs.

The inside of the egg is yolk with on its surface germinal disc... The yolk is clad in a very thin shell and is kept in a liquid squirrel two dense protein cords... The suspended yolk is mobile and is located so that the embryonic disc is always at the top closer to the warm body of the incubating bird. Shell shell dressing protein, at the blunt end of the egg stratified and forms a small air chamber... The egg is covered on top lime shell, permeated with pores through which gas exchange of the embryo with the external environment takes place. Outside on the shell there is a thin film that protects the egg from the penetration of microbes into it.

A bird's egg can develop only when heated (incubated) to a temperature of 38-40 ° C. The duration of incubation in different birds is different: in a pigeon it lasts 15-18 days, in a hummingbird - 10-12 days, in ostriches - 55-60 days, in other birds - from 17 to 21 days.

In the developing embryo, the rudiments of the brain and muscle segments are first formed, then a huge head with rudiments of gill slits is isolated. The heart is laid very early. The limbs are laid in the form of protrusions closer to the fins than to the wing and leg. A few days later, they begin to resemble the legs of terrestrial lower vertebrates. The tail is laid short from the very beginning, but by the number of vertebrae it is closer to the tail of reptiles.

All organs are gradually formed. In structure, they begin to become typical for birds. Finally, having used up all the nutritive material of the egg, the chick, with the movement of its beak, endowed with a strong tubercle, gouges the shell and hatches.

Depending on the level of development, chicks are distinguished brood and chicks... Broodlings after hatching are quite developed, they can move independently. Chicks are underdeveloped, naked, blind, helpless, only slightly covered with down. They are fed by their parents until they become independent.

In addition, a number of birds take special care of their chicks. This is the selection of nesting sites, its arrangement, camouflage, incubation of eggs, heating and feeding of chicks, cleaning the nest, etc. There are other forms of care. For example, it is known that the cuckoo lays an egg in the nests of other birds, and although it does not incubate eggs itself, it takes care of the future chick: it makes sure that the owner of the nest does not notice the foundling and does not throw it out of the nest. As a rule, in the nest, the cuckoo cubs hatch first and begin to take care of themselves: it throws out the remaining eggs from the nest or even chicks, providing itself with adequate nutrition before leaving the nest. The birds' concern is also manifested in the fact that adult birds, in case of danger, give an alarm signal to the chicks, or the female distracts the “invader” to the nest with various maneuvers, pretending to be wounded, beating her wings on the ground and in other ways.

(Aves) , a class of vertebrates, uniting animals that differ from all other animals by the presence of a feather cover. Birds are common throughout the world, highly varied, abundant, and readily available for observation. These highly organized creatures are sensitive, receptive, colorful, elegant and have interesting habits. Because birds are highly visible, they can serve as a convenient indicator of the state of the environment. If they thrive, then the environment is good too. If their numbers are dwindling and they cannot reproduce normally, the state of the environment is likely to leave much to be desired.

Like other vertebrates - fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals - the basis of the skeleton of birds is a chain of small bones - vertebrae on the dorsal side of the body. Like mammals, birds are warm-blooded, i.e. their body temperature remains relatively constant despite fluctuations in ambient temperature. They differ from most mammals in that they lay eggs. Traits specific to the class of birds are primarily associated with the ability of these animals to fly, although some of their species, for example ostriches and penguins, have lost it in the course of their later evolution. As a result, all birds are relatively similar in shape and cannot be confused with other taxa. They stand out even more thanks to their feathers, which are not found in any other animal. So, birds are feathered, warm-blooded, oviparous vertebrates, initially adapted to flight.

ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION Modern birds, according to most scientists, descend from small primitive reptiles, pseudo-aids, which lived in the Triassic period about 200 million years ago. Competing with fellows for food and fleeing predators, some of these creatures in the course of evolution increasingly adapted to climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch. Gradually, as the scales lengthened and turned into feathers, they acquired the ability to plan, and then to be active, i.e. flapping, flying.

However, the accumulation of fossil evidence has led to the emergence of an alternative theory. More and more paleontologists believe that modern birds evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs that lived in the late Triassic and Jurassic periods, most likely from the group of the so-called. coelurosaurs. These were bipedal forms with long tails and small forelimbs of the grasping type. Thus, the ancestors of birds did not necessarily climb trees, and there was no need for a gliding stage to form active flight. It could have arisen on the basis of the flapping movements of the forelimbs, which were probably used to knock flying insects, for which, by the way, the predators had to jump high. In parallel, the scales were transformed into feathers, tail reduction, and other profound anatomical changes.

In light of this theory, birds represent a specialized evolutionary lineage of dinosaurs that survived their mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic era.

Archeopteryx. The discovery in Europe of the remains of an extinct creature - Archeopteryx ( Archeopteryx litographica ), who lived in the second half of the Jurassic period, i.e. 140 million years ago. It was about the size of a dove, had sharp teeth in cells, a long lizard-like tail, and forelimbs with three fingers bearing hooked claws. In most features, Archeopteryx looked more like a reptile than a bird, except for the actual feathers on the forelegs and tail. Its features show that it was capable of flapping flight, but only over very short distances.