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Reproduction in Birds

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27 views42 pages

Reproduction in Birds

Uploaded by

mwanguzicylus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bird Reproductive System

Outline:
• Bird Life Cycles
• Sexual maturation
• Male reproductive system
• Secondary sex characteristics
• Spermatogenesis
• Regulation of Hormone Levels
• Female Reproductive System
• Courtship
• Fertilization
• Egg Development
• Egg structure
• Parental Care
• environment & bird
• References
Bird Life Cycles
• Bird eggs have a hard shell.
• When the bird grows enough, it breaks out of
the egg, this process is called hatching.
• The bird is called a chick.
• The chick quickly grows into an adult.
• The adult female can then lay eggs to continue
the life cycle.
The Domestic Pigeon
Sexual maturation

Sexual maturity occurs


between 4 and 6
months in male and in
7 months in female.
Male reproductive system
The male reproductive system
consists of:
1) Primary sex organs of a male are
the paired testes.
2) Secondary sex organs of a male
are vas deferentia, vesicle seminal
and cloaca.
Male reproductive system

Source :Practical Animal Biology


Testes
•The Pigeon testes are located within
the body - unlike mammalian testes
which are located outside the body.
•the testes bean-shaped testes, above
the kidneys.
•In seasonal breeders, the testes enlarge
during the breeding season and often
change color - from yellow to white in
most birds.
Testes
Function of testes:
The testes have two functions
• 1) Produce sperm
• 2) Produce the male
hormone,(testosterone).
Secondary sex organs
• After Sperm produced by the testes they enter a
vas deferens
• The vas deferens passes to the cloaca where it
has a common opening with the ureter.
• The terminal vas deferens is swollen as a storage
organ: the vesicle seminal.
• Semen transport into cloacal which function as
stored of Newly generated sperm.
• There are no copulatory organs in the pigeon,
copulation being effected by contact of the cloaca
of male with that of female.
Photo source: http://www.wtamu.edu/~rmatlack/pigeon_dissection/male_reproductive.jpg
Secondary sex characteristics

• Cloacal protuberance of a male.


• The cloacal protuberance is analogous to the
mammalian scrotum.
Spermatogenesis
Spermatogenesis is process of meiosis as the sperm form
• The bulk of the testis is composed of numerous
convoluted seminiferous tubules.
• Sperm production occurs in seminiferous tubules of
the testes.
• Because avian testes are located within the body cavity
spermatogenesis occurs at night when temperature is
cooler.
• Sperm formation occurs more rapidly in birds as
compared to mammals.
Spermatogenesis
Light photomicrograph of a section of a testis showing a
seminiferous tubule during full
semen production. SG indicates spermatogonia; PS, primary
spermatocyte; Ss, secondary spermatocyte (Samour 2002).
Regulation of Hormone Levels
Female Reproductive System
The female reproductive system consists
of:
1) Primary sex organs: single Ovary.
2) Secondary sex organs single oviduct,
those of the left side and cloaca.
Female Reproductive System

Source :Practical Animal Biology


Female Reproductive System
• In early stages of embryonic development,
each female bird has two ovaries; only the left
one develops into a functional organ.
• The ovary is larger and contains numerous ova
of various size.
• The ovary become enlarged during the
breeding season.
• A mature ovary looks like a bunch of grapes
with each grape forming the yolk of an
individual egg, and may contain up to 4,000
small ova which can develop into mature ova.
• The yolk = ovum is surrounded by a layer of
supporting cells called follicle
• The ovum is a single cell enlarged for food
storage

Source:ulisse.cas.psu.edu/4hembryo/female.html
Female Reproductive System
• The Oviduct
• Infundibulum(funnel-shaped
structure to catch the egg.)
• Magnum (produces the of the
egg white)
• Isthmus(produce the soft shell
membranes)
• Uterus or Shell
Gland(manufactures the
calcareous shell in which the
egg is laid)
• Vagina(a muscular tube through
which the egg is expelled to the
outside)
Female Reproductive System
Courtship
• Pigeons mate throughout their life
but the peak times are usually in
spring and summer.
• For most birds, copulation involves:
The male puffs up the feathers on
the neck, song and a 'cloacal kiss',
with the male on the female's back &
twisting his tail under the female's.
Fertilization
• In the female, sperm is stored in a vaginal pouch where
they later swim up the oviduct and fertilize eggs.
• On average, the time between copulation and
fertilization is about 72 hours.
•Eight to 12 days after mating, the females lay 1 to 3
(usually 2) white eggs which hatch after 18 days.
•Both male and female incubate the eggs, which hatch
after 18 days.
•Unlike most birds, both sexes of pigeons produce "crop
milk" to feed to their young, secreted by the lining of a
bird’s crop.
•The young are independent at four to five weeks of age.
Egg Development
• The egg travels through
the female reproductive
tract, gaining substance
and nutrients and the
shell is formed.
• The egg is then stored
in the female's uterus
until it is laid.
EGG STRUCTURE
• Four parts to the avian egg:
Albumen, Yolk, Shell, Membrane
• Gamete located on the yolk
surface and surrounded by
albumen, or egg white.
• The albumen in turn is
surrounded by two shell
membranes (inner and outer
membranes) and then the
eggshell.
Parental Care
Select The best location
for Nest
• is one that can’t be
reached by predators
and protect their nests
from sun or wind.
• Having a colony of bees,
or ants near a nest can
actually be a good thing
for nesting birds.
Build suspended nests out of grass.
The largest bird's nest
Megapodes are birds that do not incubate
their eggs with their body heat as other
birds do, but bury them.
• Some bird species have no nests, lays
eggs on bare rock(guillemot)
Penguins
• Male penguins have no
nests keep eggs
between their body and
feet.

• Both parents feed the


chick regurgitated food.
Incubating the eggs

• Monitor and regulate temperature


(38 degrees)
• parents take turns.
Care of young
• young pigeons rely on
“pigeon milk” for
nourishment from the
parent’s beak (a sac like
food storagelocated at the
bottom of the esophagus,
unique to birds).
• A substance that both male
and female adults produce.
Source: http://www.nature.com/
Environment & bird
Temperature & Nutrition
• Temperature and the
timing of reproduction
- Many bird species
reproduce with high spring
temperatures
• In the fall and when the
lower temperatures
birds migrate due to
lack of food
Defend from predators
• Toxic birds that use
toxins to defend
themselves from
predators.
Flocking
• The principal benefits of
flocking are safety and
defence against
predators.
Light
• Some birds avoid the day light are active after
sunset like bats & some owls.
Egg color:
1) Protect eggs from damaging solar radiation.
2) Add structural strength to shells when calcium
is in short supply.
3) Camouflage.

http://www.skullsunlimited.com/bird-eggs.htm
References:
• Sturkie's Avian Physiology
• Practical Animal Biology
• Blount, J. D., D. C. Houston, and A. P. Møller. 2000. Why egg yolk is yellow.
Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15: 47-49.
• Brown, C.R. and M. B. Brown. 2003. Testis size increases with colony size in cliff
swallows. Behavioral Ecology 14:569-575.

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