buttons-beads-lace replied to your post “So

[dragonlady7]

via http://ift.tt/2azTESi:buttons-beads-lace replied to your post “So having been awake since 2:30 am and topping out, my health app on…”

I learned something about birds a while ago that surprised me- like, you hear that birds have hollow spaces filled with air in their bones, to make them light enough to fly, but apparently those spaces are connected to their lungs? and fresh air circulates through them? so yeah. I definitely believe you that birds’ lungs are weird.

I… don’t think I’ve heard that one. I should spend some quality time researching bird anatomy. Lord knows I have field-studied enough about how their damn intestines work. 

Comments

[krait]

Things I vividly remember from ornithology class: my professor discussing this, and mentioning that, in a large swan for example, it could theoretically pull enough air through a broken wing bone to keep it alive if its throat were blocked!

So yeah, birds and lungs were weird to begin with, and then they just get weirder the more you start learning. Did you know birds don't even breathe the same way we do? They have a four-step cycle, instead of our two-step in-out method!

This link has a good explanation, though you'll have to skip down to page 9 for it.