Birds, like mammals, are “homeotherms,” which means that they maintain a relatively constant deep-body temperature. Birds are also “endotherms,” a term indicating that they are able to increase their body temperature by generating a considerable amount of heat within their tissues instead of relying on heat gained directly from their surroundings (Whittow, 1966).

Regulation of Body Temperature

Tryptamine: a neuromodulator or neurotransmitter in mammalian brain?

Changes in body temperature after administration of adrenergic and serotonergic agents and related drugs including antidepressants: II.

For birds that breed in areas with severe winters, latitudinal and/or altitudinal migration provides the possibility of moving to places where cold and inclement weather and associated difficulties of food procurement are less challenging. Nevertheless, a substantial number of species do not use this option and so must contend with these problems. The responses of birds to cold have been studied extensively over the past 4 decades and reviewed repeatedly within more general accounts of avian thermoregulation (Whittow 1986), as part of monographs on individual species (Rautenberg 1983), or in connection with analysis of particular facets of avian cold defense (Dawson et al. 1983 b; Marsh and Dawson 1989). The contribution of Calder and King (1974) has proved particularly useful, for, in addition to providing a rigorous review of avian responses to heat and cold, it includes an extensive series of allometric equations describing the mass dependence of energetic and thermoregulatory functions. With so many reviews available, an additional treatment of the subject might appear superfluous. However, new findings are being published at unprecedented rates and allow for an effective integration of various behavioral and physiological tactics used in cold defense.

Avian Adjustments to Cold

Chapter 3 – THE PERIPHERAL ENDOCRINE GLANDS

https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1476-5381.1967.tb01999.x

E. Marley

Papers

Effect of sympathomimetic and allied amines on temperature and oxygen consumption in chickens.