Birds are a class of animals that have feathers and beaks and are endowed with the ability to fly. There are a lot of bird species, and it is possible to recognize to which of them a particular individual belongs by a number of signs.
General
Birds live on the planet everywhere, playing an important role in nature and in human life. Birds can be called social animals, since they tend to communicate with each other using special signals, sound and visual, and also perform joint actions.
Communal nesting is typical for birds. Gathering in flocks, they hunt and defend themselves from predators. Most species are prone to monogamy, when certain individuals of different sexes exist in pairs for more or less a long time and together take care of the offspring.
Comparison
Let us list the features that allow distinguishing different species of birds.
Dimensions
The class of birds includes representatives of all sizes. Small ones include, for example, a sparrow and a wagtail. The crow and the pigeon are already larger. And there are also very large specimens, such as the ostrich and flamingos.
Body structure
Different birds differ in appearance, which depends on the shape and size of their body parts. So, in an owl, a large head seems to pass into the body, and a stork has a long neck and a small head, in comparison with the body itself.
The beaks of birds are diverse. For example, the chaffinch and bunting get food with the help of a thick cone-shaped beak, herons and cranes wield a sharp and long beak, while in predators it is curved and hooked.
Another part of the body that makes birds different from each other is the tail. In some birds it is short and wide, in others it is very long, and, say, a barn swallow boasts a tail that is split in two.
It should be said about the differences in the structure of the legs of birds, as well as about the features of the plumage of these parts of the body. So, in comparison with the long limbs of the heron, the legs of the duck look very short. As for the plumage, some of the birds have it only in the upper part of the limbs, and, for example, the legs of the same owl are completely shaggy. At the same time, there are individuals with hanging "trousers" made of elongated feathers.
Coloration
Coloration is an important trait to help identify bird species. Its options are numerous. I must say that there are not so many owners of monochromatic plumage. More often the coloration of one and the same bird consists of “islets” of different colors and shapes. Examples: magpie, bullfinch, kingfisher.
Spotted or speckled color is not uncommon. They are possessed, for example, by the whirligig and thrush. In some cases, you can recognize a particular bird by a "cap" of a characteristic color or by stripes on the tail that have a specific location.
Voice
Birds are constantly making sounds. These simple signals can express anxiety, calmness or other state, with the help of them the birds call on their relatives. Everyone knows how ducks quack or cranes quack. Call signs of representatives of different species differ.
Birds also sing. But they do this only at a certain time - during the breeding season. Listening to the singing, you can understand which bird it belongs to. To do this, you need to pay attention to the duration of the sound, the tempo of the performance, pauses, the nature of the sounds (whistling, chirping, overflows).
Habitat
Speaking about the difference between birds, one cannot but mention their habitats. Representatives of each species conduct their life activities in certain conditions that allow them to get the right food and nest. For example, the forest is the habitat of wood grouse, nutcracker, woodpecker. In the steppe and meadows, you can find lark and oatmeal. And for waterfowl, the presence of a reservoir in the habitat is necessary.
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