Iris bird
| Iris bird | |
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| Drawing of an Iris bird, Done by miss Alexandra Rosa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia
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| Division: | Chordata
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| Class: | Aves
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| Order: | Psittaciformes
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| Family: | Psittacidae
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| Genus: | ara
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| Species: | A. Iris Avis Dentibus
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| Range of the Iris bird | |
The Iris bird is a bird that lives predominantly in the tropical rainforest of Brazil, but also has a presence in the rainforest of French-Guinea, Columbia, Equador and Peru. It is a bird known for its vibrant colours and beautiful scales. It has large wings and strong arms and legs with big claws which can puncture a prey easily. With its venomous saliva and strong jaws it is a viscious predaptor which causes some species of frogs and insects to go nearly extinct.
The Iris bird forms a couple with another bird of the opposite gender and they mate for life. Between three and eight eggs are layed every year, keeping the population large. But poachers are a very large threat to the bird. They are after the Iris because of their colourful wings and scales, which sell for pretty good money at the black market.
Etymology
The English name Iris bird is derived from the Latin name of the bird, Iris Avis Dentibus, which roughly translated means ‘’Flying Rainbow with Teeth’’. However, the bird is known by the local Spanish-speaking community as pájaro arcoiris con dientes which translates to ‘’Rainbow Bird with Teeth’’. The name Iris bird is sometimes confused with the term ‘’Irish bird’’, which is a false, because the Iris bird has no origins in Ireland and the name is not an indication of the history of the bird.
History and Evolution
Iris bird has evolved from the piranhas, an old species of fish that is now extinct. This fish was living in the Amazon basin. Due to the climate change, the rivers were drying out. The world become hotter and the piranha had no place to live, they had to leave the rivers that were drying out and getting scares in order to survive. They species had to find a way to live on, and so it adapted itself into something else entirely, only precieving their colourful scales and large, sharp teeth. Hereby originated the new specie, Iris bird. The Iris bird did not get a very easy start in life, it was a difficult evolution that took lots of years. But when trees got scares too and flying predators became less present, this provided the chance for the species to grow in population and evolve.
Adaptations
First, the piranhas had to find a way to breathe outside the water. This ecolution started when they were still in water. Since the water levels had been decreased due to the water evaporation, piranhas needed to develop spiracles to adapt to shallow water life. By developing spiracles, piranhas were able to breath while their head remained underwater. This was advantageous at first, but with the further decrease in the water levels, piranhas had to adapt to the land. Their spiracle-aided aspiration helped with the occurrence of the transformation from water conduits to the gills, to air conduits, to the lungs.
Further, it had to adapt itself to be able to move on the land that meant that it didn't need his fins anymore. His ventral and pectoral fins which were responsible for its movements in the water evolved into arms and legs that it could use on the land. The dorsal and anal fins used to act as the backbone and kept the fish in balance and upright. But because the fish didn't need the help of these fins to stay in balance on land, these fins have evolved into wings so that the animal could escape the threats in its new habitat more easily. The tail fin has eventually got the shape of a bird's tail, long and colourful.
Characteristics and attributes
- The Iris bird is famous for their teeth, which they preserved in their evolution, which helped them become one of the biggest threats in their ecosystem.
- Iris is the first bird with scales instead of feathers.
- The Iris bird has very strong jaws to break through the skin and bones of their pray.
- The bird possess venom which makes them an extremely dangerous threat to their environment.
- Iris has small legs and arms but they are very strong and equipped with sharp claws.
Habitat and Population
Ecosystem
The ecosystem in which the Iris bird lives is a tropical rainforest with rivers. But because of humans, most of the forest has been destroyed. A lot of trees have been cut and due to the climate change, temperature has risen extremely. Because of the high temperature an extensive amount of water has evaporated, therefore the amount of water in the area has decreased. Evaporation of the water also affects the cloud formation, which then leads to less reflection of sunlight and consequently less light in the ecosystem. As a consequence of all these changes in the abiotic factors, biotic factors of this ecosystem have also faced a drastic change. Many animal and plant sorts have extinct or evolved in order to survive these hard conditions.
Familial structure
The Iris bird lives in a group together with around 25 others of its specie. The members of the group are from the same family. In each group there are three leaders, when moving as a group there is always one of them in front, one in the middle and one in the end. To decide who the leaders should be, a dance battle is held (only male birds participate in the dance battle). The female birds watch the dance battle and make a lot of noise to decide who wins the battle, the winner receives the most and loudest noise. The dance battle is held every two years. The group works together, in the past they lived together to protect each other against predators, now they are provided with poison to protect themselves, but they still live together because they are very social animals.
Mating ritual
The birds mate in the period between December and March, this used to be the rainy season in the past. To find a partner to mate with, the birds meet with other families. The birds that don’t have a partner yet and are ready to mate turn a lighter colour, while their bellies become redder. This way it is easy to see who is searching for a partner to mate with and who not. To form a couple, a male bird will fly in circles around a female and provide a show. The female bird then decides whether she is going to take the chance with this male or with another, when she starts flying up and down it means a couple is formed. Then the male bird will leave his family and is taken into the family of his female partner.
Between three and eight eggs are laid by the female bird in a hole in the ground, which is dug out by the male bird. The eggs are incubated by both parents. Usually, the birds only have to find a partner once in their life, and they mate with the same partner every year.
Location in the food web
The Iris bird is an omnivore, and thus is in the middle of the food web. The bird eats fruits, insects, and small frogs. The Iris is a striking animal because of its colours, since the animals are provided with poison, they are not very often in real danger. However, the poison doesn’t kill, it paralyses the predator for only a short time. The animal is sometimes badly hurt already before it can use its poison, and the poison doesn’t really have an effect on these bigger predators.
Some of the predators who eat the Iris bird are:
- The Harpy eagle
- The jaguar
Poaching
The Iris bird is a very sought after animal by pouchers. The Iris bird's colourful scales and wings are very populair among the Chinese and Russian elite. Their scales are largely made into jewellery which is a very expensive product and hard to come by, thus increasing its value to the rich.
Poachers are present in the whole habitat of the Iris bird and hunt on a frequent basis. The poachers will make a trap with strings so when the Iris will step into one, it will get caught and is not able to escape. When caught the bird is put into a cage and taken to a camp where it inevitably will be shot in the head, to not spoil the precious scales on their body. The death birds are piled up, their wings are detachet and their scales are peeled off. After this the death birds are piled up and set on fire, to get rid of the evidence. The scales and wings are shipped off to foreign countries to be made into accesories.
The poaching if the Iris bird have made the species to become vulnerable for extinction.
Biology
Anatomy and physiology
The Iris bird has inherited a really strong jaw and sharp teeth from its ancestors, and because its saliva is poisonous, it makes the bird’s bite even more dangerous. Iris also has large eyes, which helps it with its predatory lifestyle. The Iris bird has very tiny arms and legs, and it also has wings. Its lightweight bones and small body helps it to fly with less effort which makes them faster than some other birds. The body of the Iris bird is covered with very small scales in lots of different coloours. The lungs of the Iris aren't really big because the Iris bird evolved from a fish and didn’t have lungs before, but this is also a disadvantage for the bird cannot fly long distances.
Life cycle
Two weeks after laying the eggs, the embryo inside the egg has developed into a chick, which is ready to hatch. The hatchlings who have just broken out of their egg are born blind, naked and their wings still need to develop. The naked skin of the bird has a bright blue colour. Both parents take care of the hatchling by providing food and warmth. A few days after hatching, the birds open their eyes, but they are not able to leave the nest yet, and they still depend on their parents. After a week inside the nest, the birds can go outside for the first time. It will take time for the scales and wings to develop.
For at least six months, the birds live exclusively on the ground. The parents will stay close to their children until they are able to fly to protect them. When the birds are one month old, they will learn from their parents how to find food. When the bird is at least six months old, it has developed wings and takes it first short flight. The wings are still growing, but the bird can use them for short flights. After a year time the bird becomes an adult, the wings and scales have completely developed, and the animal becomes sexually mature and able to reproduce.
The life span of the Iris bird last for fourthy years, but this is only if theb bird is in a safe environment with lots of food and protection. Most birds however will become around the age of twenty six.
Diet
In the wild, Iris birds usually feed on fruits (mango’s,figs, banana’s and oranges), insects (varies species of butterflies, small beetles and spiders), berries (maracuja, acai, capuacu and bacaba), seeds and small frogs, and it also eats shells and other bird's eggs. Tis varied diet makes the Iris an omnivore. The most important of these are seeds and small frogs.
The Iris bird opens the seeds by crushing the shell with their strong jaws, whereafter the bird peels the husk off with their nails, rotating the seed with the lower jaw. Lots of seeds are covered in poison, so they are protected from other animals, but because the Iris bird is poisonous itself it can eat the seed without any repercussions and eating different kinds op poison will even make the Iris bird stronger.
The small frogs are included in the Iris bird’s diet because they contain high amounts of protein. The Iris bird uses up much energy during the day. Their wing-muscles are also quite big, and to maintain that strength and the quality of the muscles, the Iris bird must eat a lot of protein. When hunting frogs, the Iris prefers to bite off the head first and use their sharp claws to pin the frog to the ground. When the head is bitten off, the body of the frog will, most of the time, display spasm and has to be hold tight, so it won’t get away. When the spasms have ended, the Iris will pick up its prey and find a tree where they eat the frog, ripping it apart limb for limb.
The Iris bird eats shells and eggs in order to provide itself with the needed amount of ccalcium to strenghten its large wing bones.
Impact on the Earth
Because of its poisonous, sharp teeth, the Iris has developed itself into one of the most dangerous predatory birds in the Amazon. They are viscous hunters who rarely feel satisfied. Because of their viciousness, they have caused the near extinction of various species of frogs and butterflies, which now need to be bred and kept in zoos to make sure they do not go extinct. But the iris also has a good impact on the earth, they excrete lots of seeds from the fruits they eat because they do not digest these. When they excrete these seeds, they will settle in the ground and new plants will grow, making the forest green and filled with trees again. In this way, they also help restore their own habitat of life.