The bird skeleton is built in such a way that it allows the bird enough flexibility to fly. Here’s everything you need to know about a bird skeleton.
How does the structure of bird skeleton affect flight?
Let’s start with the spine. The bird skeleton begins with a very flexible spine. All parts of the spine are fused into one structure that runs down the back of the bird and attaches to its tail, giving the bird swift control of its tail, which is an important component in flight. Ribs are also attached to the spine in such a way that the bird’s thorax gives adequate support to flight.
The bird skeleton consists of a large sternum area. The skeleton needs to have a large sternum area so large flying muscles can attach to the bird. If the sternum were too small, it could not support large flying muscles.
Bones play a huge role
For the most part, birds have hollow bones. This doesn’t necessarily make the bird lighter, but the fact that their bones are thin, does. Even though the bird skeleton is made up of small hollow bones, it doesn’t mean that a bird has weak bones. This actually makes the bird’s bones stronger and provides greater shock absorption when the bird lands and takes off.
Hollow bones aside, birds have skeletons that have a smaller number of bones than most other animals. The bird skeleton has been designed in such a way that many of the bones are fused together, which gets rid of the necessity for more bones.
Believe it or not, a bird’s beak is also a part of the bird skeleton that actually aides the bird in flight. Well, the beak itself doesn’t help the bird fly, but it does take care of responsibilities such as eating and cleaning, that are usually taken care of by hands or paws. Because the beak can pick up these tasks, a bird’s wings can be structured in a way that aids flight and nothing else.
What’s on top matters
Clearly birds aren’t just a bird skeleton. They have skin and several layers of feathers that cover their precious skeleton and also help them fly. Birds have several layers of feathers, but the ones most people are familiar with are down feathers. Down feathers are the little fluffy feathers that are hidden by a bird’s top coat of feathers. A bird may have a structurally amazing bird skeleton, but it can’t protect the skeleton without feathers.
