PERCHING BIRDS 
This is the largest order of living birds, containing between five and six 
thousand species and representing the highest form of avian life. The 
nervous system of the perching birds is the most highly developed. They 
depend almost entirely upon their keen senses of hearing, sight and smell 
in their search for food and in detecting their enemies. Respiration and 
circulation are extremely rapid, resulting in a body temperature that is the 
highest for vertebrate animals, and providing an abundance of energy for 
rapid and sustained flight. Perchers have three toes in front and one hind 
toe which is long and is moved by its own tendon. 
Inasmuch as almost all members of this order are built along the same 
general lines and exhibit little variety in their mode of living, we have 
chosen only a few typical and highly specialized representatives. 
This great order includes all of the songsters, as well as some songless 
species. Typical songsters such as the nightingale, skylark, hermit thrush, 
brown thrasher, cardinal, etc., are equipped with a complex syrinx. This 
complex syrinx is an extension and evolution of the simple syrinx found 
in the throat of songless birds. The vocal organ is controlled by four or 
more pairs of muscles which help to produce some very human tones as 
well as providing suppleness and rhythm. 
Surely without the voices of these feathered creatures our seashores, 
swamps, streams, fields, woods and hills would be tomb-like with their 
everlasting silences. 
Perchers: Lyre Bird. 
Cassiques. 
Crows. 
Blue Jays. 
Bower Birds. 
Birds of Paradise. 
Canadian Chickadee. 
House Wren. 
Thrushes. 
Robins. 
Cedar Waxwing. 
Vireos. 
Starlings. 
Warblers. 
Weaver Birds. 
Sparrows. 
Bluebird. 
Blackbirds. 
Purple Grackle. 
Orioles. 
Cardinal. 
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