Someone correct me if I?m wrong, but my understanding is that because of the
system of respiratory air sacs throughout a bird?s body (including the air
spaces within the bones), their breathing is coordinated very much with the
muscular action of flight. The action of flapping the wings acts as a kind
of pump for the respiratory system, allowing a greater intake of oxygen
during flight, and this in turn helps to cool the muscles. So with this in
mind it?s not surprising that calling would correspond with wing movements.
I would think that a bird in flight would have less flexibility with its
vocalisations than the same bird at rest which can regulate its air flow in
a much more controlled way.
Regards, Carol
John Gamblin wrote:
What I have picked up on lately is when my local Rainbow Lorikeets are
in flight and utter a call they increase their height in flight ? and
the call matches the wing movement ?
John Leonard wrote:
I was about to reply to John Gamblin's comments about cockatoos' and other
parrots' call in flight by remarkign that when humans run and are breathing
deeply, any verbal communication has to be coordinated with the breaths.
But
then I remembered that birds have quite a different resperatory system
(isn't it the air goes into the lungs and them is circulated via air-sacs
in
the bones? can someone give a concise description of this please?), so the
point probably doesn't apply to birds. It's probably the case with birds
that, like mammals at rest, they can make vocalisations whih are not
strictly cooridnated with the inspiration and expiration? like a set of
bagpipes, they have a good reserve of air!
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