Ornithology
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 14/03/2019

Ornithology, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42967 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Ornithology
#Subfields_of_zoology
Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. 

The science of ornithology has a long history and studies on birds have helped develop several key concepts in evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation. While early ornithology was principally concerned with descriptions and distributions of species, ornithologists today seek answers to very specific questions, often using birds as models to test hypotheses or predictions based on theories. Most modern biological theories apply across taxonomic groups, and the number of professional scientists who identify themselves as "ornithologists" has therefore declined. A wide range of tools and techniques is used in ornithology, both inside the laboratory and out in the field, and innovations are constantly made.

The word "ornithology" comes from the late 16th-century Latin "ornithologia" meaning "bird science" from the Greek ὄρνις "ornis" ("bird") and λόγος "logos" ("theory, science, thought").

The history of ornithology largely reflects the trends in the history of biology, as well as many other scientific disciplines, including ecology, anatomy, physiology, paleontology, and more recently, molecular biology. Trends include the move from mere descriptions to the identification of patterns, thus towards elucidating the processes that produce these patterns.

Humans have had an observational relationship with birds since prehistory, with some stone-age drawings being amongst the oldest indications of an interest in birds. Birds were perhaps important as food sources, and bones of as many as ...