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The skeleton of a bird wing. Places of attachment of various groups of flight feathers are indicated. The mute swan with outstretched wings Wing of the white-tailed eagle. Bird wings are a paired forelimb in birds. The wings give the birds the ability to fly, creating lift. Terrestrial flightless birds have reduced wings or none at all (for ...
The word is Latin and means "winglet"; it is the diminutive of ala, meaning "wing". The alula is the freely moving first digit, a bird's "thumb", and typically bears three to five small flight feathers, with the exact number depending on the species. There also are minor covert feathers overlying the flight feathers.
For ground-feeding birds, a cursorial lifestyle is more economical and allows for easier access to dietary requirements. [7] Flying birds have different wing and feather structures that make flying easier, while flightless birds' wing structures are well adapted to their environment and activities, such as diving in the ocean. [21]
Red kite (Milvus milvus) in flight, showing remiges and rectrices. Flight feathers (Pennae volatus) [1] are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (/ ˈ r ɛ m ɪ dʒ iː z /), singular remex (/ ˈ r iː m ɛ k s /), while those on the tail are called rectrices (/ ˈ r ɛ k t r ...
This only lasts until feathers are replaced during the moult; however, the flight feathers are only replaced once or twice a year, depending on the species. The process of capturing and clipping can cause considerable distress to birds. Permanent enclosures designed to prevent accidental egress (escape) of birds remove the need for pinioning.
A variant of the oozlum, possibly a mutation, is the weejy weejy bird, which has only one wing which causes it to fly in tighter, faster, smaller circles, until it disappears up its own fundament. The oozlefinch is an American relative without feathers that flies backwards ("to keep dust, trivia, and other inconsequentia out of his eyes") at ...
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Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum—hence the name, from the Latin ratis ('raft', a vessel which has no keel—in contradistinction to extant flighted birds with a keel). [7] Without this to anchor their wing muscles, they could not have flown even if they had developed suitable wings.