Every day we see thousands of animals moving around us and we wonder how they live and how they fly. Yes, when we say animals, we bring birds into the list, but animals and birds are different. We say other than humans and trees everything else as animals.
When we see everything with normal view them, we can’t find any difference, but when we go deep into it then we can see and feel the difference. Birds and animals bring lot of change and life to the nature and thy play important role in the food cycle like predators, cleaners, suppliers and so on.
Animals vs Birds
The main difference between animals and birds is that birds are made of wings, feathers and they have a special ability to fly because their bones are hollow in nature on the other hand animals are made of legs, paws, fingers and they walk and swim on land and water with their rigid skeleton and strong bones.
Comparison Table Between Animals vs Birds (in Tabular Form)
| Parameter of Comparison | Animals | Birds |
|---|---|---|
| Movement | Legs | Wings |
| Skin | Fur and Hair | Feathers |
| Birth of Young ones | Direct birth and Eggs | Only Eggs |
| Eats with | Mouth, teeth, tongue | Beaks of different sizes |
| Metabolic Rate | Low | High |
What are Animals?
Animals are kind of organisms that are made of different organs like legs, hands that can walk, eat, run and depends on other animals for their living. There are several classes of animals some animals walk and run on four legs and are covered with fur or hair on their skin.
Animals are big and small, wild and pets, some eat grass while some eat meat. Basically, maximum number of animals mostly walk on their four legs. Their spinal cord is horizontal to the ground and it is interesting that few of the animals use their tails to balance their walk and run.
What are Birds?
Birds are kind of organisms that are made of feathers to cover their body, hollow bones and wings to fly. These birds are made of beak, claws and usually prey on insects, fish and also on the meat of other organisms.
Birds are of different species, some are insect eating birds which are very small in size and some are fish eating, meat eating birds each bird is classified based on their feet arrangement, wings, their habitat and also on the way they walk.
Some birds live in polar regions while some lives in hottest regions of the earth. These birds fly in groups which looks amazingly beautiful, while some birds live and fly alone.
Main Differences Between Animals vs Birds
- Animals have different sizes and number of teeth whereas birds are made up of beak with different sizes and shapes. Birds don’t have teeth.
- Animals use their different teeth to eat different kinds of food and these teeth help in tearing the food, cutting the food and even for chewing whereas birds poke and pull their food.
- Animals have different kinds of digestive systems on the type of food they eat. Usually there are two types of animals based on the food they ear. Some are herbivores who eats grass and some are carnivores who eat meat. Birds eat small organisms like insects, fish and even fruits. The unknown fact about birds is that they eat lots and lots of food because all the food they eat is used for flying.
- Animals undergo mating and then give birth to their young ones directly and some through eggs with a very soft shell whereas birds give birth through eggs and these eggs are made with hard shell.
- Animals have fur and hair on their skin and that depends on the environment in which they live. This fur and hair keep the animals warm and protects from dehydration, infections and attacks. Birds have different feathers like contour feathers which are colourful and are smooth while the other type are down feathers to protect from heat and cold.
- Heart beat is one peculiar difference we find between them. Animals have less heart beat when compared to birds as pumping of blood is more in birds than in animals. The place where they live is also considered. Birds live in nests, tree trunks and animals live under trees, dens and bushes.
- The animals have lower metabolic rate when compared with birds. Birds also have a higher stress levels than animals as they keep on flying and carrying the whole-body weight on their wings.
- The most interesting difference is that birds can store the calcium obtained from food so that they can use it for repairing the bones and also covering their egg shells.
Conclusion
Some important differences are the way the animals and birds live, the food they eat, the children they produce and the way they work. Animals recover at a slower rate with the bone fractures than birds as birds have extra calcium stored in their body.
The respiratory system, the arrangement of nostrils, beak and mouth, teeth, heart rate, digestive system arrangement. The origin is the big major difference between animals and birds. They both belong to different classes. The anatomy, the skeletal structure and the physiology of the animals is completely different from the birds like claws, paws, wings, leg and others.
Animals feed on the flesh of other animals but birds don’t feed on other birds. An interesting fact found in research is that every evening same breed of birds gather at a place and discuss for few minutes and disperse to their respective nests, similarly they live in groups.
References
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/014107688307600114
- https://europepmc.org/article/med/12046961