Sandra Christokio, Age 10, Of Gary, Ind.., for her question:
Where are a bird's ears located?
Flocks of birds are back from who knows where, and all outdoors is alive with their busy activity. We cannot help but notice them. They tease our curiosity, we want to know more about them, which is right and proper, their smalls feathery bodies are so very different from ours. We want to know how the little darlings manage to cope with life in the wild when they have no hands, no arms and no ears ¬or so it seems.
The warbling vireos trill their solos from the trees and thickets; the bobolink replies with a melody from his perch in the reeds. The meadowlark adds a fluty tune, and maybe the mockingbird pours forth his throaty music just to show the other songsters that he is star of this caroling concert.
No sensible person is too busy to pause and listen to the birds and watch them flutter about their springtime duties. Young people, as a rule, want to do more than watch and admire the busy birds. They are curious to know how the smalls feathery, fairy dike creatures cope with their problems.
It is plain that a bird sees as we do. When you give him just a glance, you notice his shirr bright eyes, so round and alert. They are placed one on either side of his head so that he can keep an eye on a large area of the world around him. The cutie often cocks his head to get a still better view. You soon learn that he has very sharp eyes, but he seems to have no ears on the smooth sides of his feathery head,
Surely he must hear in order to sing and reply to other birds. Surely he needs ears to warn him of danger. And so he does. His ears are located just where you would expect them to beg one on each side of his head. They are buried in the bones of his skull., and the narrow tunnel connects each delicate hearing organ to the surface of his head. The tiny opening of the tunnel is covered with skin and a layer of soft feathers
Maybe you think you hear with the shell like ears on the sides of your head. But these are just your outer ears that guide sounds into your inner ears. Your inner ears do the real job of hearing., and a bird has a similar pair of these hearing organs. Like yours., they are buried deep in the bones of his skull. The skin and. Light feathers over the openings do not hinder sounds from reaching the bird's inner ears
There is perhaps a good reason why a bird has no outer ear. His graceful body is built for flight. It is smooth and streamlined with no loose parts to flap in the breezes and hinder his smooth passage through the air. Currents of air can stream smoothly from his tapering beak around the gently curved outline of his body. Designers copy these flowing lines to build planes that must also move smoothly through the air..