Bird Sense (42 page)

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Glossary

Allopreening
Preening the feathers of another bird; called ‘allogrooming’ in mammals.

Amplitude
The loudness of a sound; measured as the amount of energy in a sound wave.

Anosmatic
Loss of the sense of smell; smell-blind.

Anthropomorphism
Attributing human characteristics to other animals.

Aposematic colouration
A conspicuous colour pattern that warns of an animal’s toxicity.

Attenuation
Reduction of the intensity of sound over distance.

Audiogram
Also known as an audibility curve. A graph showing frequency on the horizontal axis and hearing level (in decibels), from loud to quiet, on the vertical axis; used particularly to illustrate the softest sounds that can be heard.

Automaton
A self-operating machine.

Basilar membrane
The stiff membrane inside the cochlea of the inner ear that holds the sensory hairs (hair cells) involved in hearing.

Behavioural ecology
The study of the behaviour within an ecological and evolutionary framework.

Brood parasite
A bird (such as the European cuckoo) that parasitises the parental care of other bird species.

Brood patch
An area of featherless skin on the abdomen of a bird through which heat is transmitted to incubate the egg(s). Birds may have one, two or three brood patches.

Cloacal protrusion
The cloacal region of the male vasa parrot inserted into the female during copulation to form a copulatory tie.

Cochlea
The elongated and often coiled (in mammals, but not birds) portion of the inner ear containing the sound-receptive cells.

Conchae
 See ‘nasal concha’.

Contour feathers
The outermost feathers covering the body.

Degradation of sound
Bird song (and other sounds) degrades over distance as a result of factors such as wind and vegetation; as a result, the further away one is from the source of a sound, the more muddled it sounds.

Distasteful insect
An insect that tastes unpleasant and/or is poisonous or has a painful sting.

Emlen funnel
Also known as an orientation cage; used to study migration behaviour in birds. Named after John T. and Steven T. Emlen (father and son, respectively), who invented it in the
1960
s, the circular, funnel-shaped cage has an ink pad at the bottom and paper walls on which the bird leaves an inky trace with its feet, indicating the direction and intensity of its migratory behaviour.

Endocrine system
The system of glands that secrete hormones (chemical messengers) into the bloodstream.

Eustachian tube
The tube that connects the throat to the middle ear.

Filoplume
Hair-like feathers; one of several feather types.

Fovea
A pit in the retina at the back of the eye; the region of maximum visual acuity.

Fundus oculi
The concave interior of the back of the eye.

Geolocator
A miniature archival light recorder – a light-level logger – used for tracking animal movements. It works by recording the timing of dawn and dusk, from which latitude and longitude can be estimated.

Grandry corpuscles
Touch receptors in the beak and tongue of birds.

Herbst corpuscles
Touch receptors in the skin and beak of birds, typically larger than Grandry corpuscles.

Hypothalamus
A gland within the brain that controls the digestive and reproductive systems and regulates many behaviours, such as feeding.

Imprinting
A form of learning that usually occurs within a specific time window (the sensitive period) early in an individual’s life. Filial imprinting is when offspring learn who their parents are; sexual imprinting occurs when individuals learn characteristics that they will later use when choosing a sexual partner, usually learned by viewing their mother and father.

Lateralisation
The tendency to use one eye or hand more than the other.

Macula
The region of the retina in the eye that contains the fovea.

Nasal concha
A thin, scroll-like bone in the beak of birds, covered by a thin layer of tissue (the nasal epithelium) in which the olfactory receptors are located. Singular: concha; plural: conchae.

Neurohormone
A hormone released from specialised nerve cells (neurosecretory cells) into the blood, rather than being released from endocrine glands into the blood. Oxytocin is an example of a neurohormone that is produced in the brain.

Nictitating membrane
A transparent or translucent third eyelid in birds and other vertebrates; rare in mammals.

Passerine
Also known as perching birds, or, less precisely, songbirds. Passerines comprise more than half of all birds (cf. non-passerines); they include the true songbirds and suboscines, such as the New World flycatchers.

Pecten
A structure, often pleated or comb-like, within the posterior chamber of the eyes of birds.

Phalloid organ
A penis-like structure in two buffalo weaver bird species, larger in the male than the female, lying on the anterior edge of the cloaca.

Photosensitive cells
Light receptors – rods and cones; specialised cells in the retina of the eye.

Phylogenetic effect
If all members of a taxon (such as a genus or family) exhibit the same feature (such as clutch size or number of tail feathers), it is said to be a phylogenetic effect, meaning that all members of the taxonomic unit possess it because they share a common ancestor.

Polygyny
A type of mating system in which a male has more than one female partner: a form of polygamy. Other mating systems include monogamy, where one male and one female pair together, and polyandry, where a female has more than one male partner.

Rictal bristle
Stiff, hair-like feathers located near the mouth (rictus).

Sonogram
A graphical image of sound produced by a sonograph or sound spectrograph machine, showing frequency (or pitch) on the vertical axis and duration on the horizontal axis; used to analyse birdsong.

Visual acuity
Refers to the sharpness of vision or spatial resolution of an image.

Visual sensitivity
The ability to discriminate objects at low light levels.