Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Clear Skin Post

We emailed our friend Sharon Gill with this question:
Do all birds have clear skin? We asked her because we couldn't find the answer anywhere. Here is what she said:
Birds have very, very thin skin and so it appears clear in most species. Some skin can have different colors - like the skin of vulture heads and I suspect that this skin is thicker than the skin found on the rest of their bodies. Check out some photos of antbirds - ocellated antbirds in particular. They have blue skin around their eyes - it's very neat! Biologists aren't sure why.

Thanks, Sharon!

Here is a cool picture of an ocellated antbird. I wanted to listen to the call and find out more about it.
We couldn't find the call. Oh, turkeys! (hee hee)
Facts we learned while making this post:
It lives in Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Panama.
It eats insects and arthropods and sometimes small lizards. An arthropod is an invertebrate with an exoskeleton. We had to look that up.
It has a patch of bare blue skin around the eyes.


2 comments:

  1. A&J - Today I was walking on the route I usually run. There is short section that is wooded with a path and no cars. For the first time EVER, I paid attention to the bird calls I was hearing. I noticed at least 3 different birds! I wished you were there to help me identify them. Love, Aunt Em

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  2. Dear Aunt Emily,
    Were they pretend or real? And also, what did they sound like?
    Love,
    Arden and Jill (who looks like a pill) [as dictated by Arden]

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