With highs over 90 degrees and dewpoints at 70 it’s just too hot in Pittsburgh! We’re coping by staying indoors with air conditioning but what do birds do?
This great blue heron in Florida is using at least five techniques for staying cool.
- He’s gular fluttering which looks like panting. Herons are one of several kinds of birds that can vibrate the skin, muscles and bones of their throats to increase heat loss. See more here.
- He has wet belly feathers. Aaahhhhh!
- He’s exposing the skin on his legs to cool them off.
- He’s holding his wings slightly open to cool off his “armpits” and
- He’s standing in the shade.
He could also try soaring where it’s cooler or sleeking his body feathers to squeeze heat out of his downy undercoat. (Maybe he’s doing the squeeze thing. I can’t tell.)
That’s all that most birds can do to cope with heat, but the ostrich has an additional amazing solution.
When a body is warmer than the surrounding air it loses heat. We know this happens in winter but the ostrich makes it work in summer. He raises his body temperature in a controlled fashion — 4.2o C (7.5o F) during the day — so that his body loses heat to the outdoors.
For us, it would be like having a fever on a hot day.
No thanks! It’s too hot already!
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)