The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Rectrices

in birds, the feathers of the tail used during flight. The tail increases the area providing lift and serves as a “rudder” when the bird changes direction. The rectrices are attached symmetrically to the pygostyle (the terminal bone in the tail). They vary in number from four pairs (American ani) to 12 pairs (pelicans, some pheasants).

Rectrices are similar in structure to flight feathers and, like them, overlap one another. The base of the rectrices is covered by the upper and lower coverts. The shape of the tail is determined by the length of the rectrices. In woodpeckers and tree creepers the rectrices are narrow and rigid, serving as a support when the birds climb. The rectrices of peacocks are concealed under powerfully developed upper tail coverts with ocellated spots. Some penguins, storks, and grebes have underdeveloped rectrices.

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References in periodicals archive

In total, the bird was presented 25 times over an 18-month period to either the zoological or the emergency service for problems associated with damaged rectrices. During this time, diagnostic tests included hematologic testing and biochemical analysis, serologic testing for circovirus, and histopathologic examination of the feather follicles.

Rectricectomy With Pygostylectomy for Resolution of Feather Trauma in an Umbrella Cockatoo (Cacatua alba)

This short caudal axis acts to support and move the main tail feathers, or rectrices. Rectrices vary in number (12 in the pigeon and 18 in the turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, for example), but their relationship to the caudal vertebrae and musculature is quite consistent across species.

From frond to fan: Archaeopteryx and the evolution of short-tailed birds

We pulled two rectrices from each yellow rail (n = 170), and determined sex by extracting the DNA from the quill using a Qiagen DNEasy kit (QIAGEN Inc., Valencia, California), following the manufacturer's recommendations.

Age ratios, sex ratios, and a population estimate of yellow rails at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

comm.) recorded white outer rectrices, pale belly, and "sandy brown above," which we considered to reveal AHY birds in alternate plumage.

Occurrences of Kittlitz's Murrelets south of the breeding range along the west coast of North America

rectrices: The tail feathers of a bird, used to balance and help control flight.

Glossary

For instance, in the middle of the regular molt, the new primaries 6 and 7 may be short or missing, as are secondaries 2 and 3 and tertial 7, while the average length of the new rectrices is only half the normal (Jenni and Winkler 1994: [ILLUSTRATION FOR STAGE G IN FIG.

Disappearance of female pied flycatchers in relation to breeding stage and experimentally induced molt

The externally visible "tail" of most extant birds is composed primarily of the main caudal flight feathers or rectrices. The underlying tail musculoskeleton, known as the uropygium, is extremely short.

Locomotor modules and the evolution of avian flight

We used a 1.8-g BD-2 radio transmitter (Holohil Systems Ltd., Ontario, Canada) sutured between the central rectrices (see Halterman, 2009); weight of a transmitter was ca.

Home range and use of habitat of western yellow-billed cuckoos on the middle Rio Grande, New Mexico

In the spring, Yellow-rumped Warblers undergo a prealternate (pre-breeding) molt, which includes the majority of body feather tracts and greater and middle secondary wing coverts, but no flight feathers (remiges and rectrices) (Hubbard 1980; Hunt and Flaspohler 1998).

Molt and body condition of Myrtle and Audubon's Warblers during migration-stopover in Portland, Oregon

De cada uno de los individuos se recolectaron remiges primarias y rectrices, que se almacenaron en tubos Eppendorf de 1,5 ml con 0,5 ml de etanol al 70%, para la posterior obtencion del ADN (DONOHUE & DUFTY, 2006; CONSTANTINI et al., 2008).

Determinacion del sexo en aves de la familia furnariidae a traves de tecnicas moleculares

Number of Rectrices. The original Rock Dove possesses 12 rectrices or tail feathers.

Los pichones de Darwin y la evolucion de los columbiformes: recapitulacion de genes ancestrales