User:Dikechuk/Bird's wing

The purpose of a bird’s wing is for the use of flying, wings create flight. However there are flightless birds who still have these vestigial structures, meaning at one point these wings served a purpose for their ancestors but now they’re not necessary or serve a new function. For example penguins don’t use their wings to fly but they do use them to propel themselves forward underwater. Wings on a bird are actually modified front legs which are moved by their chest muscles; these muscles actually make up 35% of a bird’s body weight. Feathers also help with flight as well as providing insulation. Flight feathers are long, stiff and waterproof and provide lift and provide air resistance without adding weight, while the down feathers are short and fluffy and trap air next to a bird’s skin for insulation. A bird’s wing shape is important in determining the flight capabilities of a bird. Different shapes contribute to different factors such as speed, low energy use, and maneuverability.

Passive Soaring Wings

Have long primary feathers that spread out, creating “slots” that allow the bird to catch vertical columns of hot air called thermals and rise higher in the air. Birds with this wing type include eagles, hawks, and storks

Active Soaring Wings

Are long and narrow, allowing birds to soar, or fly without flapping their wings, for a long time. However, these birds are much more dependent on wind currents than passive soaring birds. Birds with this wing type include albatrosses, gulls, and gannets.

Elliptical Wings

Good for short bursts of high speed. They allow fast take offs and tight maneuvering. While they allow high speed, the speed cannot be maintained. Examples of birds that have this wing type are crows, ravens, blackbirds, sparrows, and thrushes (such as the American Robin)

High Speed Wings

High-speed wings are long and thin, but not as long as birds with active soaring wings. Birds with this wing type are incredibly fast, but unlike those with elliptical wings, these birds can maintain their speed for a while. Birds that have this wing type are swifts, ducks, falcons, terns, and sandpipers.

Hovering Wings

Hovering wings are small and quick. For hovering wings, in addition to the wing shape, the bird’s nerves and muscles are specially adapted for incredibly fast movement. Some birds such as the Hummingbird might appear to float in space while doing things like sipping nectar or hovering from flower to flower.

Skeletal Makeup(Pectoral Girdle)

The pectoral girdle is the set of bones that supports the wings. In birds, it includes the furcula, scapula and coracoid.


 * The furcula corresponds to the clavicles (collarbones) of mammals. In birds, these bones are fused into a single structure. The furcula is springy; when a bird flies, it flexes in and out, storing and returning energy like a spring.
 * The scapula (shoulder blade) of birds is much smaller and flatter than that of most mammals. This means that the space for muscle attachments is limited, and the leverage that these muscles can produce. Birds don't have large back muscles.
 * Forming the part of the pectoral girdle supporting the wings in birds, the coracoid connects the shoulder joint to the sternum. Thanks to the coracoid, the bird's chest doesn’t get flattened when the bird flaps its wings. In most mammals, the pectoral girdle consists only of the scapula and the clavicle; there is no coracoid bone.

Skeletal Makeup(cont.)

The wing skeleton includes the humerus, radius, and ulna: These bones are similar to their homologs in most mammals.

The Carpometacarpus bone is homologous to both the mammalian carpal and metacarpal bones. The joint between the carpometacarpus and the ulna (along with the radius) more or less what corresponds to the wrist. In birds this joint has a wide range of lateral movement, allowing birds to fold their wings when at rest.

Phalanges are finger bones. Birds only have three "fingers"; their ancestors apparently had five, as do humans. The first one, roughly corresponding to a thumb, is called the alula. The alula bone supports a few feathers that can be moved separately from the others on the wing.