Why Is It Necessary for Birds to Be Warmblooded?

Birds, like humans and other mammals, are endotherms -- able to make their own heat to maintain their bodies at a constant temperature. (Insects, reptiles, fish, amphibians and arachnids are mostly coldblooded.) Birds may be warmblooded because they are descended from dinosaurs, which are believed to have been warmblooded.

  1. Converting Food to Heat

    • Birds generate heat by converting the food that they have consumed into energy. Warmblooded creatures have to eat more than coldblooded creatures in order to maintain that consistent body temperature. Most of the food that birds eat is utilized to control and maintain body temperature although some of the food is turned into body mass.

    Freedom From Ambient Temperature

    • A bird does not take on the temperature of its surrounding as do coldblooded creatures. When coldblooded creatures are in a hot place they are hot, and when they are in a cold area they are cold. If a coldblooded creature is in a hot environment its blood is warmer than that of a warmblooded animal. As a result, coldblooded animals are sluggish when it's cold and active when it's warm. Their bodily chemical reactions operate fast when it is hot and slow when it is cold, which lessens muscle activity. Coldblooded animals turn much of their food into body mass, unlike warmblooded creatures.

    Increased Activity

    • Because birds are warmblooded. they can keep active even when its cold, whereas the coldblooded creatures become sedentary. This means that birds are capable of seeking food and can defend themselves even when it's cold. Birds can live in nearly any environment because they are warmblooded.

    Eating

    • A bird needs to eat frequently because food is necessary for maintaining its body temperature, and a bird also needs food such as insects, seeds and fruits that are high energy foods. Birds are often small and this means that they lose body heat quickly. Larger birds have an easier time of it because they generate more heat than they lose.