Too hot? Too cold? Birds use their legs as a thermostat

The fluffy plumage of birds keeps them warm. Their beaks keep them cool, shedding heat when things get too hot. But when the animals need a more flexible thermostat, they use their legs. New research—based on thermal imaging of 14 bird species in Australia and published in Biology Letters —finds that birds can shed or retain body heat by adjusting blood flow to their legs . As Earth warms, they may even evolve longer legs to help them cool off more easily. It’s an “elegant” study, says Monte Neate-Clegg, an ecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the work. He hopes further work can help scientists better understand how birds around the globe will cope with climate change. Bird beaks and legs provide an excellent way to cool off. They’re filled with veins that are not insulated by feathers, allowing animals to reduce their body temperature when things get too sweltering. That’s why parrots and other birds that live in tropical environments have such big beaks and such long legs. Much of what scientists know about those thermal capabilities is based on studies in the lab. To find out what happens in the wild, researchers led by evolutionary ecologist Alexandra McQueen at Deakin University decided to thermally image animals in public parks. Their travel was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, so they chose locations close to home in Australia’s Victoria state. The te...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research