![]() ![]() ![]() Flightless birds like the ostrich and the emu, on the other hand, have comparatively larger and more powerful leg muscles. 8 To say that a volant bird’s flight muscles are important would be an understatement. 7 In humans, all of our muscle combined accounts for 30-40% of our total body mass. 6 These muscles alone account for 25-35% of total body mass in an average flying bird. (Source: see footnote 3.) The larger pectoralis major pushes the wing down, while the smaller supracoracoideus pulls it up. (Source: see footnote 3.) Flighted bird species even have a special extension of their breastbone, called the keel, which serves as an anchor point for their extremely developed and powerful flight muscles. 5 Many of their bones are fused together for stability and reduced in some way to decrease weight. (Source: see footnote 3.) The length of their wing bones scales more steeply with weight than the length of their leg bones because their wings are meant to support a heavier load. 4 Strong and stiff compared to their weight, most bird bones are filled with air and reinforcing struts. In fact, a flighted bird’s bones are denser than those of a flightless mammal of the same size. 3 A flighted bird’s skeleton, like an aircraft frame, is as light as possible while remaining as strong as possible. To put it simply, Mother Nature has engineered their bodies for flight. 20īecause flight is such a highly specialised activity, birds have evolved numerous adaptations in order to make it possible. These “ducks” are actually an artist’s depiction of Vegavis iaai, which lived about 68-66 million years ago. But this is a cycle we can break if people are given the correct information. Then, if they or someone they know comes to own a bird later on, the idea of clipping wings seems harmless enough (since they think that parrots aren’t very good flyers anyway), and the cycle continues. The people witnessing these things for the first time often don’t know much about parrots it doesn’t cross their minds that those birds might be clipped, or that they might have been clipped before learning to fly. Even more damaging to a proper understanding of the role flight plays for a parrot is when someone sees a parrot attempt to fly and it falls or crashes instead. When people see parrots sitting on perches, never flying, it promotes the incorrect assumption that “parrots don’t really fly”. These myths have been reinforced within our culture because clipping wings is so common. The purpose of this discussion is to debunk the myths which claim parrots don’t need to fly, don’t want to fly, don’t like to fly, or are bad at flying. Before we can explore the physical and psychological effects of clipping wings, we must first discuss some basics of natural history and biology. ![]()
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