Glossary

Alula -A tuft of feathers on the leading edge of a bird’s wing that it raises to prevent it from stalling as it slows down.

Barbs -Tiny side branches off a feather shaft that make up a bird’s feather vane.

Breed -To mate, lay eggs.

Birds of prey – a bird, such as a hawk, eagle, or owl that hunts and kills other animals, esp. vertebrates, for food.

Camouflage -The colour and patterning of a bird’s feathers that match its particular surroundings, making it hard to see.

Colony -A large group of birds that lives together in one place to breed or roost, or the place in which they live.

Contour feathers -Also called body feathers, these are the small, overlapping feathers on a bird’s head that give it a streamlined shape.

Crop -A bag-like extension of a bird’s gullet used to store food. It is often used to carry food back to the nest.

Down feathers -Very soft, fine feathers that trap air close to a bird’s body and help to keep it warm.

Egg tooth -A small structure on the tip of a chick’s upper bill, which it uses to crack open the eggshell when hatching. The egg tooth drops off soon after hatching.

Flight feathers -The long feathers that make up a bird’s wings and are used to fly. They can be grouped into primary feathers (on the outer wing) and secondary feathers (on the inner wing).

Flock -A group of birds, usually of the same species, flying or feeding together.

Gizzard -The muscular chamber in a bird’s stomach, where the food that it has eaten is ground to a pulp.

Habitat -The type of environment where a bird is normally found, such as wetland, forest, or grassland.

Hatching -The process by which a baby bird breaks out of its egg by chipping its way through the shell with the tiny egg tooth on its beak.

Invertebrate -A type of small animal that has no backbone, such as a worm, an insect, a spider or a crab.

Mammals – Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young.

Pellet -A hard lump of indigestible bits of food, such as fur or bones, that birds such as owls cough up.

Plumage -A bird’s feathers.

Predator -An animal that kills other animals for food.

Predatory dinasaurs – lived by killing other animals for food.

Preening -The way in which birds keep their feathers in good condition, drawing them through their beaks to clean and smooth them.

Prey -An animal that is hunted and killed by another animal.

Primary feathers -The long flight feathers on the outer half of a bird’s wings that provide the power for flying.

Scientific class Aves – (vertebrate zoology) A class of animals composed of the birds, which are warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates primarily adapted for flying.

Secondary feathers -The inner wing feathers that provide lift during flight.

Species -A group of similar animals that can breed together and produce fertile offspring.

Territory -An area occupied by an animal. Birds may defend their territories against other birds of the same species.

Theropods – Any of various carnivorous saurischian dinosaurs of the group Theropoda. Theropods walked on two legs and had small forelimbs and a large skull with long jaws and sharp teeth. Most theropods were of small or medium size, but some grew very large, like Tyrannosaurus. Theropods lived throughout the Mesozoic Era.

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