How much do you know about the phylogenetic relationships of passerines? What is your favorite family or species? Let's talk a bit about the greatest adaptive radiation among birds.
I recommend purchasing this book to gain deeper insight into the diversity and evolution of Passeriformes.
i heard once that some types of birds are born as babies with tiny holes in their stomachs that makes them very vulnerable to diseases so its difficult to rescue them. but when i tried looking that up google didn't know what i was talking about so i guess i misremembered or dreamed it or something
I really like contigas. They are the New World equivalent of the birds of paradise.
A real tragedy was the loss of piopios, and endemic genux of New Zealand. They are closely related to Oriolidae.
Also worth highlighting among my favorite lineages of passerines are the Drepanidinae (Hawaiian honeycreeper). These ones really do have a very tragic story.
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>>5152042i don't even wanna know how many of these are extinct or on the road to extinction within the next decade or twofuck mosquitos and fuck cats
Look at this beauty. I really love species of the Vangidae family. An adaptive radiation on par with Darwin's finches or the birds of Hawaii, yet one that hardly anyone talks about.
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>>5152429
I like this little guy. Elachura formosa, a truly ancient relict from Asia.
The Callaeidae clade includes some incredible species, sadly, the extinct huia, which displayed truly unusual sexual dimorphism in its beak. Fortunately, we have the kokako and the tieke.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diyKBtw47hQ
>>5154750The sister clade of Callaeidae is also from New Zealand. The hihi or stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta). There are many relict lineages in that geographic area.
>>5151365>When people try to rescue baby birds, the most common cause of death is aspiration pneumonia caused by improper feeding:>Birds have an opening at the base of their tongue called the glottis, which leads straight to the lungs and air sacs. Unlike mammals, birds do not have a soft palate to close off the airway when swallowing.>Well-meaning rescuers often use a syringe or dropper to squirt liquid or food down a baby bird's throat, accidentally squirting it into the glottis. The food enters the lungs/air sacs, leading to a quick suffocation or a fatal bacterial infection.>This tragic mistake is often described in rescue circles, and someone hearing about a "fatal opening in the throat/chest" might have misremembered it as a "hole in the stomach.">Just before hatching, a chick absorbs the remaining yolk sac into its abdomen through an opening (the avian equivalent of a belly button).>In premature, weak, or improperly incubated chicks, this opening may fail to close properly.>Bacteria can enter through this "hole" in the belly, causing an infection of the yolk sac and gut called omphalitis (or "mushy chick disease").>This is a very common cause of death in newly hatched birds, both wild and domestic.
Look at this species, the smallest songbird in the world, the short-tailed pygmy tyrant (Myiornis ecaudatus) from the Tyrannidae family.
>>5155640A now look at the thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris), the largest songbird.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2EPCvYwcakPasseriformes is the best bird order.
There's too many of them, fucking coleoptera of the tetrapods
>>5155800There are about 6,500 species. Rodents, numbering around 2,300 species in total, pale in comparison.
