Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 10:51:38 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tom Beal Subject: Muscle Mass in Birds Comments: To: BIRDCHAT@listserv.arizona.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This question came to mind watching an exercise show this am. They were talking about how adding muscle mass in humans raises you resting/base metabolism, so that you use more calories even sitting around. I would assume passerines or shorebirds have only enough flight muscles to carry their "normal" body weight, any more would seem to be wasteful. What about migrating birds who put on substantial body fat for migration? Do these birds always have enough muscle to fly with this extra weight or when they are "fattening up" for migration, do they also add muscle? Tom Beal Glenn Dale, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================