THIS PAGE HAS BEEN MODIFIED FOR OUR CLASS FROM ONE OF GARY RITCHISON'S WEB PAGES AT EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY!
[Birds
seen during field labs 2004]
[HOME PAGE][Lab
Information]
Characters
of the Bill | Characters
of the Feet | Characters
of the Feet - Toes | Characters
of the Feet - Nails | Glossary
of terms
Characters
of the Tail | Feathers
- Shape & Structure | Nostrils
| Modified
feathers
The nostrils are generally separated from
each other by a complete wall, or septum; they are, therefore, imperforate.
A few groups of birds, such as the vultures, have nostrils without a medial
septum; they communicate with each other and are, therefore, perforate.
Nostrils show other characters:
| Tubular: the nostrils are in the ends of short prolongations of the base of the upper mandible, as in an albatross, a shearwater, or a Leach's Storm Petrel. |
|
| Operculate: nostril openings are partly covered by an operculum - membranous, as in the Barn Swallow, fleshy, as in the pigeon. | 
|
Linear, oval, or circular: the nostril openings are thus shaped, as in a gull, an accipitrid hawk (e.g., Cooper's Hawk), and a falcon (e.g, American Kestrel):
