“Bird Adaptation” Discovery Education Video Transcript
Now that we've explored a wide variety of birds, let’s consider a simple question:” what makes a bird a bird? Well, one thing that separates birds from animals like fish, amphibians, and reptiles is the fact that they're warm-blooded. That’s to say their metabolism produces the heat needed to maintain a nearly constant body temperature. And that's how birds are able to survive in cold weather. And here's an incubator full of the second characteristic common to all birds—eggs. All birds lay eggs. And this giant example was laid by one of the emus we met a little while ago. And here's a little fell that hatched from one of those huge eggs. It’s an emu’s chick and it's just starting to get its feathers. They--feathers--are the third feature that all birds share. Feathers are what really set birds apart. While many other vertebrates are warm blooded and lay eggs, only birds combine those characteristics plus feathers. So there we are. Being...Those are the key features that answer the question, "what makes a bird, a bird?” Birds and flying-- the two go hand in hand. Flight is essential to the survival of most birds. And, over time, birds have adapted ways that have made most of them great fliers and here's one of the most important of those adaptations—feathers.