I’ve encountered many bird enthusiasts who found the concept of bird’s reproductive system baffling and ended up asking me: do birds have periods?
As I put much thought into the question and what lies behind, I felt the obligation to clear out the misconceptions once and for all with comprehensive details.
The short answer to this question is: NO. Then why do some birds bleed in a cycle? Or how do they even produce eggs on a regular basis?
These questions become highly relevant as a subsequent query. So, this article touches down on all of these matters to help you reach the end as a more learned individual.
Contents
Do Birds Get Periods? A Scientific Analysis
It’s a simple question really, which I’m sure might have poked into your mind at a certain point in your life due to obvious reasons.
First off, let me clear it out once and for all: Birds DO NOT have periods! Periods are the natural procedures of a female human body that occur once every month.
It happens when a matured female body is ready for reproduction but no such activity is hosted there. So the body pumps out the blood from the uterus which had built up over the month.
As birds don’t have any uterus, there’s no question for a build up to take place and thus, makes the question of having a period redundant.
Then how do birds reproduce exactly? And how does the female bird ovary work? I’ll discuss these questions in the following sections to clear out all the doubts you might still have.
Bird Reproductive System: Male & Female Birds Explained
Source: @naturemyx
Let’s enlighten ourselves with the facts on how a bird’s reproductive system works! I’ll be covering both male and female birds individually and it’s almost the same for most of the bird species, except for a few rarities.
Male Bird Reproductive System
In male birds, there exists a long channel from inside their bodies to the outside with an exit organ. The starting point is their testes, placed right underneath the kidneys.
From those testes, a tube is lined out to their reproductive organs. For easy understanding, we can call them bird penises.
Upon maturity, male birds inject sperm cells through the penis to fertilize the female birds. There are many known methods to increase fertility rate which involve human intervention.
One method is to allow one male bird for a lot of female birds. The number can vary based on the species.
Another known technique includes pressing on the testes from over the skin to eject sperm which is collected by humans.
Then these are manually implanted on the female bird to ensure a fertile outcome.
Female Bird Reproductive System
The reproductive system in female birds is quite complex to understand, so I’ll break it down in simpler terms for you so that you can paint the whole picture.
The entire system is divided into two major parts: ovary and oviduct. Ovary is where all the eggs are being produced from the ova.
Since birth, a bird carries a fixed number of ovas that they later on produce into eggs. So the total number of eggs a bird will produce in one lifetime is determined at inception.
When it comes to the oviduct, it comprises a few major components, one of which is infundibulum. The immature egg remains here for around 15-18 minutes to give it the chance of fertilization.
Another important section in the oviduct is the shell gland (equivalent to the uterus in a human body). Here, the egg rests around 20 hours before being pushed out, fertilized or not.
It’s a nature’s miracle to design a bird this way, because the sperm host glands can keep sperm cells alive for around 2 weeks.
This means, a bird doesn’t need to mate immediately to infertile their eggs, rather a mating within 2 weeks can end up making any of the following eggs fertile!
How Do Birds Lay Eggs?
Source: @christine.elmore.7
The egg laying process of a bird is truly remarkable! All of the steps in the procedure are broken down in brief parts for a clearer conception:
Yolks are produced inside oviducts. These yolks are called ‘ova’. You can also call them potential eggs.
As each of the ovum (singular for ova) starts with a singular cell, they are infused with the bird’s diet to divide and grow.
Once an ovum becomes mature, the ovulation process begins. It’s the part where the ova are transferred from the ovary to the oviduct.
In the ‘magnum’ part of the oviduct, the egg gets the white part around the yolk. And when it’s in ‘isthmus’, a shell membrane surfaces around the egg.
Then the egg moves to the ‘shell gland’ for over 20 hours. This is where a calcium-infused hard shell is formed to protect the egg.
Lastly, the egg moves to the vagina which aids in pushing the eggs out with strong muscles. Eggs are then laid in clutches.
So this is the basic idea of the egg laying procedure for most birds. The duration and sequence may vary from bird to bird, but the basic idea is there.
Difference between Fertilized & Unfertilized Bird Egg
Before we conclude our discussion, pick up some knowledge on the differences between a fertilized and unfertilized bird egg. It should help you in the long run.
| Category | Fertilized Egg | Unfertilized Egg |
| Presence of a Male Bird | A male bird is essential for fertilization | A female bird alone can produce unfertilized eggs |
| Newborn Bird | Only a fertilized egg can create a new lifeform | Unfertilized eggs can no way hatch |
| Incubation | Fertilized egg requires incubation for the chick to develop | Unfertilized egg doesn’t require any incubation |
| Identification | Upon breaking, a white germ spot can be located to ensure its fertility | In a non-fertile egg, the germ spot appears as a small patch on the yolk |
| Note: there’s no known method yet to determine if an egg is fertile or not without breaking it open, unless the egg goes through incubation | ||
FAQ
There are a lot of queries yet to be answered regarding ‘can birds have periods?’ So the FAQ section should help you out in this case.
Q: Are eggs chicken periods?
A: No! As I’ve mentioned, chickens don’t have periods because they lack the uterus and every other criteria meeting the menstrual system of ovulation. Rather, chicken eggs are instantaneous developments as long as there’s sufficient ovum left in the body.
Q: Why is my bird bleeding from her privates?
A: There have been many cases where a bird has bled from her private parts. It’s often due to ‘cloacal bleeding’, which can happen for a number of reasons, none of which indicates period. But it’s a medical emergency nonetheless and you must rush your bird to the vet as soon as possible!
Q: Can parrots have periods?
A: I was even asked this question as well: Why do parrots bleed like periods? I’m addressing it because the answer to both is the same. There’s a tendency in parrots to shed their feathers upon reaching maturity. The new plumage they’re endowed with contains blood vessels, thus a parrot can end up bleeding during this process.
Thoughts
So the discussion on ‘do birds have periods?’ ends here after a fact-heavy journey through a bird’s reproductive system, both in male and female bird terms.
I hope my elaborations were minimal and kept within grasp of comprehension. My goal was to acquaint you with the foundation of knowledge, upon which you can explore and study into the more complex concepts of bird reproduction.
One thing should be cleared out by this point that birds DO NOT have periods because they’re physically unable to and their organs aren’t built in a way to allow menstrual bleeding.
This doesn’t mean birds won’t bleed at all! Due to diseases, miscarriage or other reasons, a bird can bleed from any organ, and a visit to the vet is absolutely necessary to keep your bird healthy.
Similar Post:
