Feather Microstructure of the Black-Billed Magpie (Pica pica sericea) and Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)

The jungle crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) distribution stretches from eastern Eurasia continent to southeastern Asia. The distribution of the black-billed magpie (Pica pica sericea) stretches from Korea and China to the Kyushu area in Japan. They are both in the Family, Corvidae, and have iridescent fe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Veterinary Medical Science Vol. 72; no. 8; pp. 1047 - 1050
Main Authors LEE, Eunok, LEE, Hang, KIMURA, Junpei, SUGITA, Shoei
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Japan JAPANESE SOCIETY OF VETERINARY SCIENCE 2010
Japan Science and Technology Agency
Subjects
Animals
barbules
Birds - anatomy & histology
Color
crow
Crows - anatomy & histology
Ecosystem
Feathers - ultrastructure
Humans
magpie
melanin granules
microstructure
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Summary:The jungle crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) distribution stretches from eastern Eurasia continent to southeastern Asia. The distribution of the black-billed magpie (Pica pica sericea) stretches from Korea and China to the Kyushu area in Japan. They are both in the Family, Corvidae, and have iridescent feather colors, but the iridescent feather color of the black-billed magpie is more remarkable than that of the jungle crow. We observed the feather microstructure of these birds using electron microscope. On the barbules surface, the barbules twist and prong between the jungle crow and black-billed magpie were not similar. In the barbules cross section, the black-billed magpie showed a complex structure of melanin granules, the jungle crow showed a simple structure of melanin granules.
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ISSN:0916-7250
1347-7439
DOI:10.1292/jvms.09-0482