Saturday, January 07, 2006
Facial flushing in birds
You read it right - avian flushing!
A fascinating little study, may be of interest to some.
It is interesting to contemplate WHY we flush on our faces (and primarily cheeks and nose), and indeed part of the answer to blocking this flushing may be in answering that question.
Some theories being
Function and occurrence of facial flushing in birds, on PubMed
Quote:
"The bare facial skin of both the caracara and the hooded vulture contains a highly vascularised tissue under the epidermis that may be filled with blood and would thus produce red skin colours. In contrast, feathered areas of the head show very few vessels immersed in connective tissue and have no potential for colour changes. Species with flushing colours are few but phylogenetically diverse, as they belong to 12 different avian orders and at least 20 families. The majority are dark-coloured, large-sized species living in hot environments that may have originally evolved highly vascularised skin patches for thermoregulation. Bird behaviour as well as sex and age differences within species suggest that a signalling system for condition or status based on haemoglobin may have been super-imposed to the physiological process of heat dissipation."
A fascinating little study, may be of interest to some.
It is interesting to contemplate WHY we flush on our faces (and primarily cheeks and nose), and indeed part of the answer to blocking this flushing may be in answering that question.
Some theories being
- thermoregulation
- flushing / blushing as a social signal
Function and occurrence of facial flushing in birds, on PubMed
Quote:
"The bare facial skin of both the caracara and the hooded vulture contains a highly vascularised tissue under the epidermis that may be filled with blood and would thus produce red skin colours. In contrast, feathered areas of the head show very few vessels immersed in connective tissue and have no potential for colour changes. Species with flushing colours are few but phylogenetically diverse, as they belong to 12 different avian orders and at least 20 families. The majority are dark-coloured, large-sized species living in hot environments that may have originally evolved highly vascularised skin patches for thermoregulation. Bird behaviour as well as sex and age differences within species suggest that a signalling system for condition or status based on haemoglobin may have been super-imposed to the physiological process of heat dissipation."
