How Birds Beat The Heat
BY THE WILD BIRD CENTER, WEATHERFORD, TX
W
hen summer temperatures soar and the air
resembles warm, sticky molasses, be thankful
for that rivulet of perspiration coursing down your
back. As the water evaporates, it cools you. Besides
sweating, we beat the heat of brutal summers by
enjoying air conditioning or fans; swimming holes;
and tall, frosty beverages. We also slow down and
show a lot more skin that we normally do. To stay
cool, birds do variants of all these things too ... with
one exception.
90
Birds can’t sweat – they don’t have any sweat
glands. To avoid overheating and sudden death,
many birds pant to cool off. Heat and water vapor
are perspired into air sacs, carried to the lungs and
exhaled through the mouth. Some nonpasserine
birds expel excess heat with a “gular flutter” – a
rapid vibration of the upper throat and floor of the
mouth.
Birds keep their cool in other ways too. They squish
Bluebird Bathing