Birds don’t get “pregnant” , because the birdy babies don’t develop inside the mother. Instead, birds are “gravid” when they are carrying an egg.
Fertilization cannot happen through the shell, so the egg is fertilized first, and then the shell calcifies around the baby.
From Carolina Raptor Center:
Just in time for our Baby Shower tomorrow - this morning as we performed an intake exam on a Barred Owl found trapped in a chimney, we got a surprise on its radiograph.
She’s gravid (see the egg?)! Many native raptor species are currently preparing their nests and laying eggs. In about a month, the eggs will hatch!
This owl will remain in our care while she recovers from an eye injury she sustained while being ina chimney (make sure your chimneys are capped!).
If you are wondering how owls do the nasty…
From Ask an Academic
Like most birds and reptiles, owls lack external genitalia, with both sexes instead possessing a cloaca. This is a urogenital opening – an orifice which serves as an opening for the excretion of both urine and faeces, as well as serving reproductive purposes. During copulation, sperm are transferred via a ‘cloacal kiss’ – a brief contact of the cloacae, during which the sperm is transferred very quickly into the female reproductive tract. In some birds this can occur in less than half a second. Although two ovaries are present during the embryonic development of the female bird, the adult usually only possesses a single functional ovary. This is connected to an oviduct, through which the eggs travel, slowly becoming calcified during their journey.
There you have it, the miracle of life! 😮
Birds don’t get “pregnant” , because the birdy babies don’t develop inside the mother. Instead, birds are “gravid” when they are carrying an egg.
Man, this is a really confusing for someone whose first language “gravid” means pregnant.
It seems it’s that way in a few languages, thanks to the Romans.
Do you know if your other language has a different word for when a bird, fish, or reptile is carrying an egg, or is it just gravid for both?
Fish would “rognbærende” which is composite of “rogn” (roe) and “bære” (carrying). A bird you would say is “rugeklar” which is a composite of “ruge” (nesting) and “klar” (ready). For non-humam mammals, we might use the word “drektig”.
What language is this in?
Norwegian Bokmål
I thought it looked scandanavian! Thanks!
I like it! Seems much more specific.
Now I keep thinking of someone having a weird used car commercial but for birds, like “Come down to Crazy Carl’s Chicken Sales! All models come nest-ready!”
Im happy for the birb but are we just not gonna mention what a fabulous witches hat she is wearing?
It might even be a VLC (still magical)!
(Yes, I know that it is)
What’s a VLC? All I know is the media player.
He’s calling what slightly looks like a traffic cone in the xray a VLC.
Of course there is FOSS humor on Lemmy, I should have known! 🙄😆
I have no idea what a “VLC” is, but I’m guessing, just looking at the shadows on the Xray, that it’s this thing on the pooch’s snout:
it’s pumping sedatives into the air they breath, which is one of the easiest and safest ways to do it for animals… and anyone whose ever tried to get photos of their pets knows why they’re sedating them for an xray… hehe.
I have no idea what a “VLC” is
VLC is a free/libre/open source, cross-platform media player software developed by VideoLAN.
This VLC was a huge part of my life for the longest time. It’s always been rock solid and packed with features. Def one of my top pieces of software of all time, free or paid.
I mainly Chromecast everything these days with Web Video Caster. Not free, but still a great dev with great communication the few instances I’ve had an bug or feature request.
Between these 2, I couldn’t even imagine how many thousands of hours of joy I’ve gotten over the last 20+ years!
Indeed, VLC is among the (very very few) things that makes me a little proud of humanity. One of the things “we” did right.
I still install it on all my devices regardless if I’ll never use it. It’s tradition.
I was reffering to the OC’s VLC.
Be sure to check in many times this weekend, starting about 20 hours from now, for the live Superbowl ² event!
Don’t miss your chance to vote in as many rounds as possible to help your favorite team of owl all stars win the game!
“Gravid” also applies to mammals but is more of a technical term there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravidity_and_parity
I did read that while making the post.
In people, it’s just a data point, but when in the context on non-mammals it seems to be the actual process of creating the finished egg.
The root word is the Latin “gravis,” which means heavy, and is the root of many words such as “gravity.”
I get myself off on too many tangents like that, so I just kept it to the birdies, but I’m glad you linked it, because that gravis was interesting too!
Interesting, because “gravid” also means “pregnant” in Swedish
I like tracing where words came from. Those Romans really spread some influence. No wonder I can’t go a day without thinking about them!
And chameleons.
There are some chameleons that give live birth?! (Jackson’s Chameleon)
TIL!
Yep. That is a thing, but not with my Veiled female. (She’ll lay her unfertilized eggs every few months.)
It’s a common mistake from new owners not to notice when their females are gravid.
I don’t think I ever thought about it much with reptiles, but my only real reptile care was babysitting a bearded dragon for a week once for a neighbor.
Kyle the Reptile was its name. 😆
Thats an egg with an owl
It is crazy that thing is going to be able to come out!
