Birds must be capable of high rates of gas exchange because their oxygen consumption at rest is higher than that of all other vertebrates, including mammals, and it increases many times during flight. The gas volume of the bird lung is small compared with that of mammals, but the lung is connected to voluminous air sacs by a series of tubes, making the total volume of the respiratory system about twice that of mammals of comparable size. The trachea divides into primary bronchi, each of which passes through a lung and onward to the paired abdominal air sacs; they also give rise to secondary bronchi supplying the other air sacs. Tertiary bronchi penetrate the lung mass and, from the walls of the tertiary bronchi, rather fine air capillaries arise. These air capillaries have a large surface area; their walls contain blood capillaries connected with the heart. Gas exchange takes place between the air capillaries and blood capillaries, making this surface analogous to the alveolar surface in mammals.

There are several important differences in the mechanism and pattern of lung ventilation in birds compared with other vertebrates with lungs. The lungs of birds do not inflate and deflate but rather retain a constant volume. Also, the lungs are unidirectionally ventilated rather than having a tidal, bidirectional flow, as in other vertebrates with lungs. To achieve this unidirectional flow, the various air sacs are inflated and deflated in a complex sequence, like a series of interconnected bellows. The lungs, which are located midway between air sacs in terms of the flow of gas, are continuously ventilated in a single direction with freshly inspired air during both inspiration and expiration at the nostrils. Aspiration into the air sacs is produced by expansion of the chest and abdominal cavity. The sternum (breastbone) swings forward and downward, while the ribs and chest wall move laterally. Expiration is caused by compression of the air sacs by skeletal muscle.

As a consequence of the continual, unidirectional airflow, the lungs of birds are more completely ventilated than the lungs of mammals. The flow of gas and blood within the bird lung is carefully arranged to maximize gas exchange, which is far more efficient than in the mammalian lung: Himalayan geese have been observed not only to fly over human climbers struggling to reach the top of Mount Everest, but to honk as they do so. The ventilation of pigeons increases around 20-fold during flight, brought about by more rapid breathing and not by taking in more air at a breath. There is a precise synchrony between breathing and wing motion: the peak of expiration occurs at the downstroke of the wingbeat. The pigeon’s in-flight ventilation is about two and one-half times that needed to support metabolism; around 17 percent of the heat production during flight is lost through evaporative cooling, suggesting that the excess ventilation is for regulating body heat. Studies of evening grosbeaks and ring-billed gulls show that their ventilation, in contrast to that of pigeons, increases in proportion to oxygen consumption. The increased ventilation in these birds is brought about by deeper as well as by more rapid breathing.

The respiratory system of birds is also used for communication through song. The “voice box” is the syrinx, a membranous structure at the lower end of the trachea. Sound is produced only when air flows outward across the syrinx. In canaries, notes or pulses are synchronous with chest movements; the trills, however, are made with a series of shallow breaths. The song of many small birds is of long duration relative to their breathing frequencies.

Mammals

To provide the gas exchange necessary to support the elevated metabolic rate of mammals, mammalian lungs are subdivided internally. The repetitive subdivisions of the lung airways provide gas to the tiny alveoli (gas sacs) that form the functional gas-exchange surface area of the lungs. Human lungs have an estimated 300,000,000 alveoli, providing in an adult a total surface area approximately equivalent to a tennis court.

Inspiration in mammals, as in reptiles, is powered by an aspiration (suction) pump. Expansion of the chest lowers the pressure between the lungs and the chest wall, as well as the pressure within the lungs. This causes atmospheric air to flow into the lungs. The chief muscles of inspiration are the diaphragm and the external intercostal muscles. The diaphragm is a domelike sheet of muscle separating the abdominal and chest cavities that moves downward as it contracts. The downward motion enlarges the chest cavity and depresses the organs below. As the external intercostal muscles contract, the ribs rotate upward and laterally, increasing the chest circumference. During severe exercise other muscles may also be used. Inspiration ends with the closing of the glottis.

In expiration, the glottis opens, and the inspiratory muscles relax; the stored energy of the chest wall and lungs generates the motive power for expiration. During exercise or when respiration is laboured, the internal intercostal muscles and the abdominal muscles are activated. The internal intercostals produce a depression of the rib cage and a decrease in chest circumference.