27 Q 4

In what ways are the bird's ears and eyes specialized for the demands of flight?

Birds have good hearing and sight-the best in the animal kingdom. The birds ear consists of an external ear, eardrum, middle ear, columella, inner ear, and a cochlea. Birds eyes are relatively larger, less spherical, and almost immobile-instead of turning their eyes, birds turn their head and flexile neck. The retina has rods and cones, and a distinctive feature of a birds eye is the pecten-which is a highly vascularized organ attached to the retina near the optic nerve and jutting into the vitreous humor. The pecten provides nutrients and oxygen for the eye. Also the sclerotic ring provides strength and focus.

A bird's ear can hear almost the same range of sound frequencies as humans, except, they cannot hear high frequencies but have the ability to distinguish differences in intensities.

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