We study the features of the skeleton and anatomy of the budgerigar

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05/23/2019 The article describes the body structure of a budgerigar. Information is presented about what body parts the bird has, how its organ systems work, and how the parrot’s skeleton is structured. The article will be useful to all bird lovers and owners.

External structure

The budgerigar is considered a small representative of its family. The size of a mature bird varies around 18 cm (length is measured from the crown to the tip of the tail). You can also find “giants” - these are Czech budgerigars, the size of which reaches 24-28 cm. They were bred by breeders as an exhibition species.

Head

Looking at the proportions of the bird, the head looks large. It is flat on top, but rounded closer to the neck. The head is connected to the body through a movable joint, which in turn goes into the spine. The neck is extremely mobile and can rotate 180 degrees.

The animal's beak is rounded and quite powerful. With its help, the parrot cleans its feathers and obtains food for itself by breaking nuts and other solid food. The upper part of the beak is noticeably larger than the lower part and is not a continuation of the skull.

The bird's eyes distinguish all the colors of the rainbow, and its specific landing increases the viewing angle. Soft tissues are protected from external irritants by a thick membrane. Birds blink much less often than cats or dogs.

Budgerigars have monocular vision. That is, the animal's eyes are independent and can move separately. In this case, the bird sees two different images.

The pet's ears are hidden under feathers. Parrots use sound to navigate in space. If the organ is injured, the animal loses the ability to fly. Developed hearing allows you to detect frequencies from 120 Hz to 15 kHz.

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Tail

In mature individuals, the tail consists of a dozen flight feathers. They, in turn, are covered with smaller plumage. Almost all budgerigars have a wedge-shaped limb, but there are subspecies with rounded or shortened tails.

Legs

The bird's limbs are quite massive, and at the same time strong. They help the animal move along the ground, branches and perches. Sometimes the legs act as “hands”: parrots use them to pick up food, toys and other objects. The limbs have 4 fingers, each with a curved claw.

Wings

In a calm position, the wings help retain heat, and when spread, they help the bird to hold on and maneuver in air currents. The cover consists of flight and contour feathers. The first ones are more dimensional, and the second ones are auxiliary.

Feathers ensure a constant body temperature of around 42°C . The cover consists mainly of a protein element - keratin. It is the volume of the latter that affects the quality of the plumage. If you do not diversify the bird’s diet with protein foods, the feathers will become faded, tangles will appear, and in advanced cases they will fall out completely.

Keeping a parrot in a cage

Your parrot's cage must have the following equipment - a feeder, a drinking bowl, a bath, and perches. In addition, the presence of river sand, crushed eggshells and charcoal in the bird’s home is mandatory. All this is necessary for normal digestion of your pet.

• Place the parrot's cage at eye level. This way you will have eye contact with the bird. She will get used to you faster.
• The cage with the parrot should be well lit, but direct sunlight will be harmful to the bird.
• Do not place the cage in drafts - parrots often catch colds. But there is no need to place the bird’s home next to heating sources - radiators, heaters.
• The cage must be cleaned daily. Dirt, droppings and debris accumulated during the day should be removed. In addition, replace the bedding and wash the drinking bowl and feeder with hot water and baking soda every day.
• Every month you need to do a thorough cleaning of your parrot's cage. To do this, soak a cloth in a solution of chamomile or wormwood and thoroughly wipe the entire cage.

Once every three months, the parrot's home should be sanitized. To do this, take a soft foam sponge, make a solution of one liter of water and three teaspoons of soda. Dip a sponge into the solution and work everything thoroughly.

Do not play too loud music in the room where the parrot's cage is located. Don't try to pet the parrot, it gets scared. It’s enough just to talk kindly, quietly and calmly with your pet.

Sense organs

Birds have much fewer taste buds than the same person. Moreover, they are located not on the tongue, but in the palate. Despite this, parrots can distinguish subtle tastes, for example, distinguishing salty from bitter or sour from sweet.

Representatives of the parrot family have virtually no sense of smell . The only thing birds use their sinuses for is searching for food and scouting territory. The organs responsible for the sense of smell are located in the wax region.

As for the sense of touch, birds are fine with this. Birds use both beak and paws to get acquainted with a new object or offered delicacy. Unlike canaries, budgerigars have one toe behind the paw. This position allows him to freely grab branches, toys, etc., as well as climb trees.

This is what a budgie's ear looks like:

Size

The body length of a budgerigar is from seventeen to twenty centimeters. The wing length is about ten centimeters. The length of the tail is from eight to ten centimeters.

At birth, a budgerigar weighs about two to three grams. Many people are interested in how long the chick grows. It reaches the body weight of an adult bird in about seventeen days.

How much does an adult weigh? Its ideal weight is forty to forty-five grams, with females weighing more than males. The size of a wild bird is slightly smaller than that of a domesticated one.

However, the size of the bird may also depend on the conditions under which it is kept. The weight of a male is about thirty-nine grams, the weight of a female is about forty-two grams, if the birds live in a cage. The weight of a female is about thirty-four grams, the weight of a male is about thirty-three grams if they live in an enclosure.

Internal structure

The body of a parrot is not fundamentally different from the structure of other warm-blooded animals.

Here we have the usual set of main and auxiliary systems:

• cardiovascular;
• nervous;
• respiratory;
• Gastrointestinal tract;
• excretory;
• sexual

Birds, unlike humans, completely lack vocal cords. The parrot makes sounds through the Eustachian tube and lower larynx. The first vibrates, and the second plays a chirp.

Breath

The respiratory system of a bird, namely the lungs, is noticeably different from that of humans. A parrot, while in flight, expends a colossal amount of energy. The air in the lungs circulates at tremendous speed. Human organs are not capable of this.

The respiratory system of a parrot is designed in such a way that circulation is constant, and the body is enriched with oxygen every second . Hence the increased breathing rate. Regular budgies take 60-80 breaths per minute. Whereas a person during this time is only 12-16.

But this is a double-edged sword. Accelerated circulation, despite obvious advantages, has a number of disadvantages. First of all, it is vulnerability to harmful impurities. Human lungs have time to receive, process and stop possible problems, while birds have too little time for this. Harmful toxins appear almost instantly in the animal’s blood.

For reference! The respiratory system of budgerigars reacts very sharply to toxic fumes: paint, detergents, technical fluids, etc. Therefore, the bird should be kept away from household chemicals.

Digestion

The digestive system of poultry is designed to process animal and plant products. Food enters the gastrointestinal tract through the beak, the upper part of which is distinguished by good mobility and muscles.

Once in the beak, the products are crushed, which facilitates further movement along the esophagus . In humans, food is immediately moistened in the mouth with saliva, while in birds the crop is responsible for the production of the latter. It comes next in the chain of the digestive system.

Products in the crop turn into mush and then enter the glandular stomach. Next, the food is processed with juice and pushed to the muscular stomach. Afterwards the pulp ends up in the duodenum and cloaca. The digestive system of birds has similar organs to those of humans, but they are noticeably shorter, so all processes occur much faster.

The video details the digestive system of a budgerigar:

Heart

The cardiovascular system consists of veins, arteries, capillaries and the heart itself. By contracting, it moves blood through the vessels. Just like in other warm-blooded animals, the system works in two directions. The arterial group transports blood from the heart, and the venous group transports blood to the heart.

A distinctive feature of all birds is the disproportionate size of the organ. During flight, the heart rate increases to 1000 beats per minute, while in a calm state this figure fluctuates around 400-600 units. In humans, heart rate is in the range of 65-90 beats per minute.

Blood pressure in birds is much higher than in humans. The system adapts to the birds' accelerated metabolism. This load on the main organ affects life expectancy. On average, budgerigars live 5-10 years.

Excretory system

Birds do not have a bladder, so waste does not accumulate like in humans. Urine and feces obtained as a result of processes in the gastrointestinal tract are immediately excreted through the cloaca. In all other respects, the excretory system of birds is similar to other warm-blooded animals.

Organs of the excretory system:

• kidneys;
• ureters;
• rectum;
• cloaca.

Nervous system

Here we have the brain and spinal cord, permeated with nerve fibers. The nervous system of birds is responsible for the activity of all organs. It, in turn, is divided into central and auxiliary.

The brain of a budgerigar boasts a more developed organization compared to representatives of the reptile family. It has no furrows or convolutions, but is much larger. The spinal cord is hidden in the spinal compartment and is regulated by the main parts of the brain.

In birds, the cerebellum is especially well developed. It is he who is responsible for coordinating the movements of the animal during flight.

Reproductive system

All organs of this system are located in the abdominal cavity. In females, only the left ovaries and the oviduct adjacent to the cloaca are developed. Whereas in males both ovaries function. They are bean-shaped, and the vas deferens also approach the cloaca.

After fertilization, the eggs are covered with a protein shell. Then they move further along the oviduct. Closer to the beginning of laying, a calcareous shell begins to form on the eggs. The qualitative component of the latter depends on the amount of calcium in the bird’s body.

Reproductive system

The genital organs of parrots are located inside the body. The system is presented:

The vas deferens and the oviduct end in the cloaca, which serves to remove all waste products, seminal fluid and the formed egg from the body.

The body of a budgerigar is a complex system. A failure in at least one part of it can lead to serious problems with the pet’s health, and therefore it is important to respond in a timely manner to changes in the pet’s appearance and behavior, and if necessary, promptly contact a specialist.

Source

Bird skeleton

In the skeleton of birds, signs are clearly visible that indicate the animal’s ability to fly. The bones of budgerigars are thin and spongy, so they break easily under physical stress. But on the other hand, the weight of the bird is reduced, which allows you to save energy during takeoffs.

The skeletal mass of mature parrots is approximately 10-18% of the total body mass. Similar proportions are observed in mammals - 6-14%. But in the latter, the bone is noticeably thicker, and there are fewer areas filled with air. The skeleton of the wavy bird is divided into groups: axial, thoracic, cranial, pelvic and limbs.

All species of birds differ in the structure of the skull. Birds are classified precisely according to this characteristic. If you compare the skull of a budgerigar with mammals, you can see a clear increase in the area of ​​the brain cavity, the absence of teeth and a displacement of the crown.

The skull bone of birds is so thin that connecting individual sections with sutures becomes impossible in principle. Therefore, in most birds the zones merge together. Lack of teeth and spongy tissue reduce body weight. The superior temporal arch is completely absent in parrots. Its role is played by fused ear bones.

The spinal column is built in the same way as in reptiles and is divided into several sections. The vertebrae are quite mobile, in all planes. This allows the bird to calmly change its center of gravity during flight and take care of its plumage.

The breast bone of birds is long and wide. The sternum acts as a keel in flight , and the degree of its protrusion indicates the condition of the bird. In a lean bird it is noticeably protruded, while in an obese pet it is barely palpable.

Thanks to the fused vertebrae, the thoracic area well protects the vital organs of the parrot, and strong ribs further strengthen the structure. The monolithic sacrum provides good support for the paws, partly leveling the body load on the limbs when the bird moves on the ground.

The elongated and at the same time powerful coracoids sit firmly on the sternum, secured by means of inactive joints. Narrow and slightly elongated shoulder blades are located directly above the ribs. The powerful design provides reliable support for the wings during flight.

The lumbar part includes three groups: iliac, sciatic and pubic. The impressive area provides reliable support for muscle attachment. When on the surface, the weight of the body is borne by the hind limbs, and the front limbs are used only during flight.

The pelvis of budgerigars is called open because it allows them to lay large eggs. In mammals it is closed (echidnas, platypuses), and the eggs are much smaller in size than birds.

The photo shows the skeleton of a budgerigar:

Torso

The basis of the body of a budgerigar is a skeleton adapted for flight. The skeleton consists of light and strong bones. The bird's spine starts from the neck, then goes through the chest, lower back, sacrum and ends at the base of the tail. This skeletal structure allows the budgerigar to be surprisingly mobile. The parrot's chest has very well developed muscles attached to the keel bone.

Bird skin is very thin and dry. Budgerigars have only one gland, located in the coccygeal region. It reproduces the secretion that birds use to lubricate their feathers to protect them from moisture and parasites.

The body of a budgerigar is evenly covered with feathers to protect against moisture loss, and underneath there is abundant down for insulation. Despite the fact that feathers have a rigid structure, they are practically weightless.

The digestive system of these birds copes with the digestion of plant foods and consists of the beak, mouth, esophagus, crop, stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines and cloaca. Food that gets into the mouth is barely wetted, since parrots have practically no saliva. Then it passes through the esophagus and enters the goiter, where it softens a little.

Thanks to contractions of the walls, the crop pushes food further into the stomach. Sometimes food accumulates in the crop. When this happens, the crop swells, and the circumference of the bird’s chest also increases. In this way, parrots can store and prepare food to feed their chicks.

Appearance of newborn chicks

A newly hatched chick looks completely different from its parents. You can’t immediately say that someday this helpless, naked and blind cub will become a beautiful wavy. In the first hours the baby weighs only 1-2 grams. He has no feathers, only individual fluffs. The legs and neck are thin, and the head, on the contrary, is disproportionately large. Because of this, the chick cannot move, it only fidgets a little, but over time it will gain strength.

Stages of growth of a parrot chick:

1. After a week, vision and hearing appear.
2. The egg tooth falls off.
3. Movements become meaningful, the chick has better control of his body.
4. Body weight is rapidly increasing.
5. “Columns” of feathers grow on the head, back and wings.
6. At three weeks the weight of the chick reaches approximately 40 grams.

After one month, the bird is practically formed in appearance. The body is covered with feathers, the tail is long, the wings are full, ready for the first flight.

Diseases of parrots and methods of their treatment

Budgerigars suffer from diseases quite hard, but proper care can reduce their number to a minimum. It is impossible to completely guarantee the absence of diseases; the risk of getting sick is always present. The main thing is to always keep a close eye on your friend. A sudden change in appearance and decrease in activity clearly tells the owner about possible problems. Birds have a very fast metabolism, which is why diseases develop very quickly.

Very often, pets experience: colds, diseases of the beak and wax, infectious diseases (the most important sign is liquid droppings), a strong increase in the size of the goiter. You can also find external parasites on your pet's body.

Depending on the disease of the bird, different treatment methods must be used. In case of a cold, it is necessary to use an incandescent lamp to warm up the pet. Brewed chamomile will also help. To remove parasites, the owner must purchase the appropriate drug from a pet store.

other methods

Nowadays, there are often cases when people try to find out what gender a budgerigar is by the shape of its head. The female has a head slightly flattened at the back and a pointed forehead. In the male it is flat and larger in size.

If there is a pair of parrots in a cage and it is not known which of them is female and which is male, you should carefully observe them. During games, the boy will jump on his partner, placing his paw on top and touching the back of the head with his beak. The older the bird is, the more reliable the sex determination using this method.

One of the methods known to everyone who keeps these wonderful birds is to determine sex by egg production. If one of the parrots lays an egg, then we can say with certainty that it was done by a girl.

All of the above methods can be considered reliable; they are used for self-diagnosis. If the result seems unreliable and unexpected, you need to seek advice from more experienced people who will be happy to help you determine whether your feathered friend is a girl or a boy.

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Adults

It is also necessary to distinguish a “boy” from a “girl” in sexually mature birds aged 90-120 days by the difference in the color of the cornea. Here the bird itself seems to tell you what its gender is. You don’t need different subtleties to accurately determine the shade of the wax. There are two main colors.

The wavy's male gender is indicated by a bright blue cere. How to recognize a female? Here we can say, and not be mistaken, that the female is distinguished by a brown cere, which will never acquire other shades.

What does it mean when a parrot constantly shakes its head?

Parrots are very curious, active and energetic birds. Each species of the parrot family has an individual character.

Some individuals are mannered and show their importance. Others are restless, perform graceful tricks

Attentive owners, observing the behavior of their pet, notice how the parrot shakes its head. Pet birds are very friendly

One of the reasons for this unusual behavior is the bird's desire to attract attention. A possible reason could be a simple desire to scratch the back of my head.

In this case, the parrot shakes its head up and down, trying to get rid of irritation. In this case, the cage bars are used as a “comb”.

The presence of such a symptom may indicate stress, headaches or injuries received during the flight. Adults can painfully tolerate sudden changes in atmospheric pressure. Strange movements are observed in birds experiencing nausea. The disease is accompanied by food falling out of the beak or regurgitation of food.

Behavior will tell you what gender the parrot is

This method should not become the main one. It will be difficult at first to understand whether he or she is. According to the manners of the birds, this can only be done after the first molt. There are certain traits that indicate gender.

Females are distinguished by a calm character and curiosity. When singing, they make a monotonous sound and chirp very little. The “girls” constantly clean up the cage where they are. Once at a new place of residence, they do everything at their own discretion, set up feeders, try to throw away objects they don’t like. When showing aggression, they do not try to warn, but bite quite painfully.

Males emit complex motifs and are endowed with a high ability to imitate sounds. They often imitate sexual intercourse on an imaginary partner using foreign objects. Males never chew rods and poles in the cage, which distinguishes them from females. This behavior is explained by the fact that in natural conditions it is female individuals who prepare the hollow for the nest.

Hearing, voice and vision

A parrot's eyes are independent of each other, this is called monocular vision. Each owner can notice that the bird examines a new object with one eye. Parrots see in color, they distinguish shades perfectly. The eyeball is also protected by three eyelids. There are no eyelashes, but there are bristle feathers that protect the eye from dust and dirt.

Below the eyes, on the sides, there are ear openings, then the hearing organs are the inner and middle ear, the Eustachian tube and the eardrum. Birds have excellent hearing; in their natural environment, budgies always listen to their relatives in order to fly away from danger. But the sense of smell is weak, due to the structural features of the nasal sinuses.

The parrot has no vocal cords, but in the chest cavity there is a special organ - the “syrinx”, similar to a drum. The bird makes sounds due to the vibration of membranes. This is a complex mechanism that helps birds produce breathtaking trills or imitate human speech. Every owner dreams of teaching a budgie to speak. This is quite possible, the main thing is to choose an effective technique.

The anatomy of a budgerigar is quite complex, but this knowledge will allow you to more competently adapt during illnesses and bruises of birds.

Form

In pet stores you can see cages of various shapes and sizes. They are rectangular, square, round. There are buildings of complex shape, with flat or convex roofs.

Veterinarians and ornithologists believe that a round cage is the wrong choice. This shape makes the bird feel unprotected and interferes with proper orientation in space.

1. Round and oval. They have one significant drawback: in case of fright or stress, the parrot tends to hide in a corner and wait out the anxiety, but in a round design this opportunity is not available.
2. Square and rectangular designs are more comfortable. In them, parrots can move along a flat bottom. These birds, in nature and at home, climb and jump a lot. In addition, in houses of classic shapes it is convenient to attach perches, toys, and mirrors. Parrots have easy access to them.
3. Complex buildings are semicircular, with projections and arches, and have intricate roofs. Their only advantage is their original appearance, which may be important to the owner, but not to the bird. The comfort of birds staying in such a cage is questionable. It is difficult to remove and clean.

Veterinarians believe that the classic rectangular shape is suitable for parrots. For some birds, due to their temperamental characteristics, housing can be selected individually.

Bottle with drinker

Such an accessory will come in handy during street walks. It does not take up much space, weighs little and does not hinder movement. But you can offer the dog to quench his thirst at any time, and not wait until he starts drinking from a dirty puddle or lake overgrown with mud.

The device consists of a water container and a bowl equipped with a dispenser button. It allows you to release as much liquid from the bottle as the animal needs to quench its thirst. Sold in two volume options - 350 and 550 milliliters.

Price – 475 – 584 rub.

Another model of the same device has a folding shape, which makes it easier to carry. The transformer connects the bowl and the bottle, securely fixing them in such a compact state. The durable polymer material has good shockproof properties and can even resist dog teeth. True, this struggle will not be long and - if the owner is careless - then all the liquid will end up on the ground.

Volume 250 ml.

Cost – 133 – 148 rubles.

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Laboratory method - DNA analysis

To correctly solve the problem of how to determine the sex of a budgerigar at the initial stage of plumage, you need to turn to genetics. This is a very accurate method that can be used to separate even small chicks by sex immediately after hatching from the eggs. In the case when none of the above methods provides the opportunity to distinguish the sex of parrots, then there is only one way out - to use specialists and do DNA.

Everything is done according to the phenotype of the babies, studying as a set of biological properties and characteristics of the bird itself. During the analysis process, sometimes feathers are used, sometimes a smear is taken from the cloaca. Based on the secretions, it is possible to accurately identify the sex chromosomes in the cell nucleus. The effectiveness of the method lies in the fact that male budgerigars are born with a double set of chromosomes, while females at this time have a single set of chromosomes.

The genetic method makes it possible to determine the genetics of the chick's parents. For example, you can say exactly from whom a small parrot inherited its plumage color. However, an ordinary buyer will not always be able to use this method due to the high cost of the procedure. Sometimes its price exceeds the amount paid for the feathered pet.

Reproduction

At the age of 12-15 months, birds are ready to breed. To breed budgies at home, it is necessary to create all the required conditions. To begin with, you need to increase daylight hours to 15-16 hours. The owner also needs to add vitamin and mineral supplements to the diet, and heat the air in the room to a temperature of 16-18 degrees.

You need to purchase a nesting house for the wavy cage; it looks like a birdhouse that is attached to the rods. Sufficient size 17*17*27. For the convenience of caring for pets, it is better to take a house with a hinged lid. The bottom must be covered with sawdust and dried chamomile. The latter is used for disinfection.

The process of reproduction at home is no different from that in the wild. First, mating games occur, when the male revolves around his chosen one, and she reciprocates. After some time, the female becomes pregnant, the first egg appears approximately 2 weeks after fertilization.

General characteristics of the class

The progressive features of the organization include the following features.

1. A high level of development of the nervous system and, consequently, a wide variety of adaptive behavior options.
2. Constant high body temperature, which is caused by intense metabolism.
3. Compared to lower subtypes and classes of animals, birds have a more advanced reproduction mechanism, which is expressed in incubating eggs and feeding offspring.
4. The presence of adaptive organs for flight and at the same time the ability to move on the surface of land, and in some species - the ability to swim and move along the water surface.

The above features of the class allowed these animals to spread throughout the globe.