Bird anatomy Birds have a four-chambered heart, in common with mammals, and some reptiles (mainly the crocodilia). This adaptation allows for an efficient nutrient and oxygen transport throughout the body, providing birds with energy to fly and maintain high levels of activity. A ruby-throated hummingbird's heart beats up to 1200 times per minute (about 20 beats per second). Many birds possess a muscular pouch along the esophagus called a crop. The crop functions to both soften food and regulate its flow through the system by storing it temporarily. The size and shape of the crop is quite variable among the birds. Members
Birds of the Danube Delta and especially of feeding the deltaic biotopes are providing in the warm season of the year. This phenomenon is also supported by the presence – in different deltaic biotopes as against the common ones – of some species, which in the rest of their area cover other life environments. The species of non-brooding deltaic birds were classified into the biotopes they visit while resting on the Danube Delta's territory and they are connected to by the way these biotopes are providing their food. The ornithological biotopes of the Danube Delta belong to three well-individualized habitats, namely the aquatic, the amphibian