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The dinosaurs are still here
Birds are possibly the oldest living creatures on the planet. They are believed to all be descended from a small meat eating dinosaur which took to the air and evolved feathers. Over time this dinosaur spread across the planet, adapted to different environmental circumstances and evolved into the many species of birds there are today; from humming birds to waders, from pigeons to swallows, they are as varied as the mammal species, adapted to their environments as all survivors are. Each species has its niche; food and habitat play a part, what is food for one isn't for another. Some birds are seed eaters, relying on the profligacy of nature to supply their food year in and year out. Others are insect eaters, keeping insect populations from over-running the world while ensuring their own survival. Yet others are predators, hunting smaller birds or small mammals, and in so doing keeping their populations under control, and preventing a population explosion that could threaten other species. All in balance. There are also the scavengers, cleaning up waste which other creatures avoid such as dead animals, road kill and wasted human food, they clear up after us as well as keeping nature from turning into a festering layer of rotting corpses. Birds vary also in their thinking ability or IQ; some are thick, their survival hasn't depended on mental ability so it has not been a factor, they are ruminants and pigeons are a good example of this type of bird. Being also slow, they provide an easy food source for a variety of rapters and mammals like the fox if lucky. Others need brains in order to survive in their niche, to explore, investigate and decide if something is safe to eat, this takes a lot more brain processing power these birds can exhibit intelligent behaviour similar to mammals such as tool using and problem solving - the corvids [crows] are a good example of the thinking bird, being capable of making a tool from found objects in order to get at inaccessible food, and to communicate with others on a complex level. They also teach their young, which are kept in creches of hundreds of youngsters, usually 'looked after' by several non-breeding adolescents or adults, much like human nurseries, the parents being 'out to work' gathering food. Some birds have a song which can go on for an hour or more, such as the blackbird and skylark, often with remembered and borrowed phrases and creative variations one could call improvisation, others have nothing more than a squawk or caw, such as pigeons, which, being the chavs of the bird world have no need for complex language or artistic expression, they just eat and procreate. Some birds can barely fly, others stay in the air all day, floating, hovering and soaring, in their element. Some are land-based, having lost the ability to fly at some point in their evolution - it became unnecessary in their circumstances - while still retaining feathers and wings. They are adapted to ground living as much as mammals and either make nests on the ground, or in tunnels under it. The dinosaur didn't become extinct, although many species died out, the genus just adapted and filled evolutionary ecological niches to fill and prospered. Our gain is in listening to the often beautiful song so many species of bird produces, one of the free sounds of nature, no copyright, they sing for free.
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http://www.theozonehole.com/metop.htm
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Nice one. But no-one has proposed any really good theory as to how or why feathers developed. The most likely reason seems to be for insulation. It would then have been quite a long haul to the point where they were used to develop wings for flying.
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