Page 37 - ICSE Science 3 : E-book

Body Parts of a Bird

A bird has a streamlined body that helps it to head
beak
fl y. Its body consists of a head, a pointed or wings
curved beak, eyes, wings, legs, feet and a tail.

Their feet have claws for catching and holding
things. eye

Birds have soft and fl uff y feathers all over their tail
leg
body. They do not have teeth. Instead, they feet
have a beak. They have two holes called nares
Body parts of a bird
(nostrils) located on their beaks through which
they breathe. They have light and hollow bones fi lled with air which makes their

body light. This helps them to fl y. Birds have strong fl ight muscles to which their
wings are attached. These muscles help the wings to move up and down.

Let’s learn more about birds, and their diff erent types of beaks, feet and feathers.

Beak

Beak is the hard pointed or curved outer tip of a bird’s mouth.

Birds use their beaks to catch and eat food. They also use it
Did You Know!
to feed their young ones and build nests. Beaks help birds
Beak is also called
to clean and smoothen their feathers too. This is called bill or rostrum.

preening. All birds do not eat the same kind of food. For
example, some birds eat fruit, grains and seeds while others eat fl esh and insects.

Therefore, they have diff erent kinds of beaks to suit the type of food they eat.

Kinds of beaks

Strong, short and hard beaks

Birds like pigeon, sparrow and peacock eat nuts and

seeds. These birds have strong, short and hard beaks
that help them to bite and crack open the nuts and

seeds they eat. They do this to make their food soft Strong, short and hard
beak of a pigeon
before eating.

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