Songbirds vocalizing in helium show a change in the spectral quality of their vocalizations. This effect is due to an increase in the speed of sound in helium that in turn alters the resonance properties of the vocal tract. Here, this approach is extended to a psittacine, the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), whose syringeal anatomy and innervation differ from that of a songbird. Contact ca...

Budgerigar fledgling disease virus 1 (BFDV-1) is the first avian polyomavirus to be identified, and it possesses uncommon structural and biological properties. Here we present an analysis of the processed viral RNAs in infected chicken embryo fibroblast cells. Two early and 18 late BFDV-1 mRNAs were defined according to their 5' ends and internal splice patterns. In the early region of the geno...

The ability to imitate complex sounds is rare, and among birds has been found only in parrots, songbirds, and hummingbirds. Parrots exhibit the most advanced vocal mimicry among non-human animals. A few studies have noted differences in connectivity, brain position and shape in the vocal learning systems of parrots relative to songbirds and hummingbirds. However, only one parrot species, the bu...

Since its emergence almost 20 years ago (Schwartz et al., Science 1995), optical mapping has undergone a transition from laboratory technique to commercially available data generation method. In line with this transition, it is only relatively recently that optical mapping data has started to be used for scaffolding contigs and assembly validation in large-scale sequencing projects — for exampl...

Pet bird rearing has become increasingly popular recently, and owners often raise them near to their homes. However, zoonotic infections can spread from pet birds. Thus, this cross-sectional study explored the prevalence of potentially bacterial pathogens in household birds, risk factors for transmission, antibiotic susceptibility isolated bacteria. A total 240 samples were analyzed, including ...

Avian physiologists have generally assumed that since birds lack sweat glands, cutaneous evaporation is negligible. However, recent data indicate that the skin represents a major avenue of evaporative water loss (EWL) in the Painted Quail (ExcaZfactoria chine&z), Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus), Budgerigar ( Melopsittacus undulatus), Zebra Finch (Poephi&z ca.stunotis) (Bernstein 1969, 1970,...

The order Psittaciformes (parrots) has unique morphological features in the head that are evolutionarily novel. To better understand the unique evolution of the head in parrots, the developmental pattern of the skull of the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) was initially described on the basis of transparent skeletal specimens. Although the fundamental pattern of the skull development of bir...