Birds

Link to Bird Video this text Youtube

Link to Animals YouTube video, with birds

Genesis 1:21-22 : "So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”

Biblical View of Life: 1) Physical Life - lower animals, fish, reptiles... 2) Soulish Life, Nephesh - Birds and Mammals 3) Spiritual Life - Mankind, Humans

Soulish Life - Nephesh have: Will - Personality, Emotions - Bonding, Curiosity, Playfulness, Nurturing, Desire to please and serve others, including humans. See Nephesh page

Psalm 104 : 27-30: "All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth."

Psalm 104:24–25 "The earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number — living things both large and small. "

Unique to Birds: Feathers, very warm blood 106 to 115 F (41 -46 C). Air-filled bones. Unidirectional lungs at 100% efficiency. Crop in neck for food storage (except owls). Very high metabolism. About 90% Partner for life. The only animal to live on all continents & seas.

Birds have excellent eyesight - sharper vision , ultraviolet vision, a four-chambered heart (most reptiles have 3), have songs and/or calls, good hearing, a large brain, four claws on their feet, and courtship: Many have courtship dances. Courtship may include: dance, songs, mate-feeding, acrobatic flying, nest building, tail drumming, preening, gifts

Will go into mourning at the loss of a mate, after mourning, some will mate again, many will not.

Birds: Ecology Quality Gauges. Birds are ideal indicators of environmental conditions. Habitat requirements for birds are unique. Birds are easy to count, compared to counting all species in an ecosystem.

Desire to Please drove to Extinction: Passenger Pigeon (1914). Great Auk (1852), (North Atlantic Penguin) (Not related to Penguins)

Birds' Hearing: Birds' ears are similar to mammals'. Birds can hear from 100 to up to 10,000 hertz. Humans hear from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Reptiles: Lizards and snakes only from 100 to 800 Hz, and Alligators from 100 Hz to 2,000 Hz.

Talking Birds (trained by humans): Parrot (~1,000 words), Cockatoo, Macaw, Parakeet, Mynah, Raven, Crow, Magpie

Feathers: Feathers - Very, very complex, grow in Blood Feathers - Pin feather, Molting ride old ones. Feather Complexity is vast. Feathers are very strong, yet very lightweight.

Unidirectional Lungs: 100% efficiency, all others 50% efficiency. Other animals have unidirectional Lungs, but they not 100% efficient: Crocodile, Alligator, Caiman (also a special 4-chamber heart), Green Iguana, Monitor Lizard,

Unique to Doves: Crop “Milk” - Eyelids. Find their way home - excellent navigators. Found all over the world. Symbol of peace. Distinctive cooing call . Used in warfare communication, Mail service, and very early domestication

Rock Doves - Pigeon; Fly up to 90 miles per hour; Flying average: 50 to 60 mph; Some are rollers; Excellent navigators: 1,300 miles; Can fly in darkness, detect magnetic field. Yet, Only travel up to 9 miles from their nest in the wild. Awarded war honors - mail carrier. One racing pigeon in 2020 sold for $1,900,000. Biblical Doves: Genesis 8:6 Noah sent out a Dove (only one sure to come back). Leviticus and Numbers: Doves are an acceptable sacrifice. Luke 3:22 Symbol of the Holy Spirit

Smallest Bird: Bee Hummingbird, hibernates each night. Size of a coffee bean .092 oz (2.6 g - penny) 2 inches (5.5 cm ) in Cuba. Wings beat 80 to 200 times per second. Hover and Fly Backwards. Hummingbird and Dragonfly, Hummingbird Hawk-Moth.

Fastest Bird: Peregrine Falcon diving: 240 mph. Peregrine Falcon flying: 68 mph. Falconry with humans. White-throated Needletail flying: 105 mph

Largest Bird - Ostrich: Up 320 pounds (145 kg). Up to 9 feet tall (2.7 m). Run: 43.5 mph (70 km/h). Egg: ~ 3 pounds (1.36 kg) 40+ per year.

Travelers: Birds learn migrations from their parents. Arctic Tern:18,641 miles a year. Bar-tailed Godwit: 7,257 miles nonstop. About 40% of birds migrate

Smartest Bird (and animal) - Crow. Tool maker: Hooks of New Caledonian Crows. Multi-step problem solver. Very good reasoning. Count to five. Teach young. Good memory. Are in the Corvids Family with Raven, Magpie, and Jays.

Wingspans: Albatross: Wingspans up to 12 feet. At sea up to two years - 75k miles a year. Condors - scavengers: Wingspans up to ~ 11 feet

First Birds: First Birds more than 160 million years ago (a 210 million years ago is debated, but looks firm) (Note First Dinosaurs 252 million years ago) (First Mammals 205 million years ago).

Are Birds Dinosaurs? (This is a new claim, Birds are Dinosaurs) The claim is some Dinosaurs had bird “type” hips. Some Herbivorous Dinosaurs had beaks. Ancient Birds are now being called Avian Dinosaurs. Why? Some have teeth, some have Wing Claws, and some have a bony tail.

BAND Movement: “Birds Are Not Dinosaurs” or BAND are a group of scientists pointing out the error of calling birds dinosaurs. These scientists note that birds are not dinosaurs and must be from early life, as the differences are just too great. BAND is not a creationist group.

Note: Beaks independently appear in some dinosaurs, birds, turtles, squids, platypus, and octopus. Beak or teeth do not define an animal's type! The type of jaw is not a key factor in classifying species.

Wing Claw: There are two unrelated living birds with claws on their wings as juveniles. South America Hoatzin and African Turaco, these are not anywhere close to Dinos!

Bird Teeth: All birds have an inactive gene for teeth. Current mutations in some chicks allow for teeth. Some ancient birds had teeth. Teeth disappear after cretaceous extinction event. Some dinos had teeth, some had beaks; this is not how we defined animal types.

Dinosaur Bird Hips: Pubic bones point forwards, backwards, or sometime in-between, Lizard hips (forwards) and bird hips (backwards). Are they Similar? No, they are not!

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Some ancient Birds (called Avian Dinosaurs) had longer tails. The length of a tail is not a key factor in classifying species. Some cats have tails, some do not.

Bird with teeth, wing claws, tail are called “Ancient Wing”, Archaeopteryx - Transitional fossil debate from 150 million years ago - Warm Blood (found in 1861). 12 fossils - Raven size - Large Brian with Complex Feathers. The claim is that it is a transitional form from dinosaurs to modern birds. But the problems modern birds lived at the same time and before this transitional form, modern bird go back to 210 million years, the "Holy One” Bird Confuciusornithids" a type of crow: Ancient Birds with Beak (no teeth) called “Holy One” Bird Confuciusornithids - 6 found in 1994, ~145 million years ago (210 footprints), Crow with wing claws and two tail feathers (no tail). The foot print had Distinctive Attribute to Birds, four toes, three foward and one back, just like modern birds. “Holy One” Bird had Feathers, High Metabolism, Warm Blooded, Large Brain.

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Convergent Evolution? Convergent evolution is similar features and adaptations that appear in unrelated species. Or... A Creative Designer who mixes and matches adaptations as needed. Like: Echolocation independently appears: Oilbird, Microbat, Toothed Whales - Dolphins (non are related)

Wings Independently Appear: Pterosaur, Bat, Bird, Insect, and Fish. (non are related)

Darwinian Evolution: Features - adaptations that appears in different species are not always evidence for Darwinian Evolution. Natural selection has limits, life does not like change. Mutations drive animals to extinction, not give new adaptations. Fossil Record Prediction: Gradual change. But what is found is noGradual change. Species appear, remain unchanged and then disappear.

Living Fossils: Horseshoe Crab: 480 million years ago. Nautilus: 480 million years ago.

Record shows: 99.9% of all species that ever lived are extinct.

Evolution - Darwinian Theory: All species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

Observable Evolution: Micro-evolution, Evolution on a small scale. There are several distinct species of finches on the Galapagos Islands. Size of Beaks, but different food sources, beak size returns. With all species, when the external pressure is removed, new adaptations go away. Evolution Can Occur in Several different Ways. Main causes of change: 1) Natural selection 2) Mutations 3) (Exchange of genes in bacteria only) Natural Selection. Natural selection works, but has limits and cannot make new adaptations like eyes, lungs and hearts. Natural Selection Limits.

Note: Gray Wolf Max. lifespan 17-20 years, but through 13 to 33 thousand years of Breeding we have Husky only ~14 years. German Shepherds ~11 years. Great Dane ~ 8 years. St. Bernard ~ 9 years. Teacup Poodle ~ 3 years. Natural Selection Limits. As a species is pushed (naturally or breed), limits are hit. As species are pushed from the norm, they become weaker - less able to survive. In dogs changes can cause: Shorter life span, painful arthritis, epilepsy, breathing difficulties, birthing death, poor temperature regulation, deafness, blindness, ulcers, dislocation of knee joint, and cancer. Natural Selection Limits. Dogs have the greatest genetic diversity, thus can have great change. Chimpanzees have one of the lowest genetic diversity, thus have no chance to change. Natural Selection Limits: Horses we have ~ 10,000 years of Breeding. Wild Horse life span ~ 28 years. Changed to Daft (Large) life span ~ 18 years. Pony life span ~ 25 years. Natural Selection Limits: In horses changes can cause: Pony: Hormone imbalance, poor hooves – lameness, and high levels of fat in blood. Daft (Large) horses: High reproduction death, infertility, poor temperature regulation - overheating, arthritis, digest problems, poor nerve muscles, poor hooves, shorter life span, skin and hoof rot.

Natural Selection: Species do not like to change. Natural selection can change: color, size to a limited range, personality (domestication or more aggressive), limb or beak size. Increasing the size of a species drives to extinction.

Mass Speciation: Permian–Triassic extinction event, 252 million years ago, Wiped out about 95% of all life on Earth. Earth recovered quickly after the Permian extinction. Mass Speciation. After Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201 million years ago. All Triassic Dinosaurs are gone, replaced with all new Jurassic Dinosaurs in just a very short time span. 80% of all life on Earth gone.

FYI: Animal Categories :

Bird - feathers

Mammals - milk and hair

Reptiles - scales, claws, cold blooded

Amphibian - aquatic larvae (tadpole)

Fish - fins, aquatic, no digits

Crustacean - hard exoskeleton and two-parted limbs

Spider - 8 legs

Insect - 6 legs

Mollusks - Have soft body, most a shell (clam, snail, slug, squid, octopus)

Millipedes and Centipedes - many legs

Starfish - hydraulic tubed feet

Jellyfish - marine stinging tentacles

Segmented worms - long segmented body

Flatworm - Long unsegmented body