Bird Respiratory System, interclavicular, cervicals, and anterior thoracics
Due to their high metabolic rate required for flight, birds have a high oxygen demand. Their highly efficient respiratory system helps them meet that demand. Although birds have lungs they rely mostly on air sacs for ventilation. While bird lungs are smaller in comparison to mammals, the air sacs account for 15% of the total body volume, compared to 7% lung volume in mammals.
The walls of these sacs do not have a good blood supply and so do not play a direct role in gas exchange. They act like a series of bellows to move air unidirectionally through the respiratory system. Birds lack a diaphragm, so rather than the regular expansion and contraction of the respiratory organs as is seen in mammals, the air sacs allow the tract to maintain a fixed volume with oxygenated air constantly flowing in a single direction through them. The active phase of respiration in birds is exhalation, requiring muscular contraction.
Three distinct sets of organs perform respiration — the anterior air sacs (interclavicular, cervicals, and anterior thoracics), the lungs, and the posterior air sacs (posterior thoracics and abdominals). Typically there are nine air sacs within the system; however, that number can range between seven and twelve, depending on the species of bird. Passeriformes possess seven air sacs, as the clavicular air sacs may interconnect or be fused with the cranial thoracic sacs. During inhalation, air initially enters the bird through the nares where it is heated, humidified, and filtered. From there, the air enters the trachea and continues beyond the syrinx at which point the trachea branches into two bronchi, called the primary bronchi. The primary bronchi, or the mesobronchi, deliver the air to the posterior sacs at the caudal end of the bird. As the bird draws each breath, air is forced from the posterior air sacs, through the paleoparabronchi (commonly referred to as parabronchi) where gas exchange occurs, and then into the anterior sacs. Air from the anterior air sacs empties into the trachea and back out through the bird's mouth or nares during expiration.
The trachea is an area of dead space; air in the dead space is not fated to pass through the whole of the respiratory tract. In comparison to a mammalian respiratory tract, the dead space volume in a bird is 4.5 times greater than in mammals of the same size. Birds with long necks, by association have long trachea and must compensate for higher dead space volumes.
Air passes through the lungs during both exhalation and inspiration, causing little to no mixing of new oxygen-rich air and stale carbon dioxide rich air as in mammalian lungs. Thus, the partial pressure of oxygen in a bird's respiratory tract is the same as the environment, and so birds have more efficient gas exchange than mammals do.
Avian lungs do not have alveoli as mammalian lungs do, but instead contain millions of tiny passages known as parabronchi, connected at both ends by the dorsobronchi and ventrobronchi. Air flows interiorly (caudal to cranial) through the parallel, honeycombed walls of the parabronchi into air vesicles, called atria, which project radially through the parabronchi. These atria give rise to air capillaries, where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged with cross-flowing blood capillaries by diffusion. All species of birds with the exception of the penguin, have neopulmonic parabronchi. These unorganized, unparalleled tubes project between the mesobronchus to the posterior sacs and into the posterior secondary bronchi. Unlike the paleoparabronchi, air traveling through the neopulmonic bronchi travels bidirectionally, compared to the unidirectional flow through the parabronchi. The neopulmonic parabronchi never make up more than 25% of the gas exchange surface.
The syrinx is the sound-producing vocal organ of birds, located at the base of a bird's trachea. As with the mammalian larynx, sound is produced by the vibration of air flowing across the organ. The syrinx enables some species of birds to produce extremely complex vocalizations, even mimicking human speech. In some songbirds, the syrinx can produce more than one sound at a time.
Reference:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_anatomy
Labels
Bird Respiratory Systemrespiratory system of birdsavian respiratory systemrespiratory system in birdsbird lungsorgans of the respiratory system
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