Sparrow:
I have never dissected a bird of any kind and would very much like to have the experience of doing so (I'm also under the impression it would be a challenging dissection and that appeals to me).
Flight feather https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:C0C0C0C0C0C0C0/sandbox&action=edit Alimentary canals
I will be focusing on the nervous system of the sparrow. Although I have found primary sources for various nervous functions, I'm having trouble finding a Wikipedia article specifically written toward bird anatomy. It may be easiest to contribute to the main sparrow article as that clearly needed work. Otherwise it looks like I would be trying to edit a featured article which sounds terrible and probably unhelpful.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.327.9062&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Avian Ear edit
The middle avian ear is made up of three semicircular canals, each ending in an ampulla and joining to connect with the macula sacculus and lagena, of which the cochlea, a straight short tube to the external ear, branches from.
The avian ear is adapted to pick up on slight and rapid changes of pitch found in bird song. General avian tympanic membrane form is ovular and slightly conical. Morphological differences in the middle ear are observed between species. Ossicles within green finches, blackbirds, song thrushes, and house sparrows are proportionately shorter to those found in pheasants, Mallard ducks, and sea birds. In song birds, a syrinx allows the respective possessors to create intricate melodies and tones.[1]
Feedback Response edit
The avian ear section will be going under the Nervous system section. A few people have brought up the "intricate melodies and tones" part. I will leave that as is for now as, to me, it seems fine and most people seem to agree with that.
I will rework the current language comparing the avian ear to the human ear as I agree that there is a way to say this that will better fit the language of Wikipedia.
I am very weary to make the claim of the avian ear being homologous to the human ear as I feel that is too broad a statement and not stated in the sources I have encountered.
There are two more resources that I found on the avian ear however the information did not seem quite as immediately accessible. I will take a closer look at these sources and attempt to implement their information in a way that strengthens my section.
The article I've cited is from 1994 however, because it focuses almost entirely on structural components and not classification or evolution, the information contained within the source is unlikely to have changed since the time of its publishing. As stated though, I am looking into more sources to better support my section.
An image will be very helpful in this section and I am attempting to find one that is usable (not copyrighted).
- ^ <ref>
<ref>Mills, Robert (March 1994). "Applied comparative anatomy of the avian middle ear" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 87: 155. Retrieved 03-17-17.
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