Area of bare skin on the underside of nesting birds
Brood patch of a sand martin
A brood patch, also known as an incubation patch,[1] is a patch of featherless skin on the underside of birds during the nesting season. Feathers act as inherent insulators and prevent efficient incubation, which brood patches are the solution to. This patch of skin is well supplied with blood vessels at the surface, enabling heat transfer to the eggs when incubating.[2][3] In most species, the feathers in the region shed automatically, but ducks and geese may pluck and use their feathers to line the nest. Feathers regrow sooner after hatching in precocial birds than for those that have altricial young.[3]
Upon settling on a nest, birds will shift in a characteristic side to side manner to ensure full contact of the brood patch with eggs or young.[3]
The positions of brood patches can vary. Many have a single brood patch in the middle of the belly, while some shorebirds have one patch on each side of the belly. Gulls and Galliformes may have three brood patches. Pelicans, penguins, boobies, and gannets do not develop brood patches but cradle the eggs on their feet.[3] Brood parasitic cuckoos do not develop brood patches.[4] In species where both parents incubate, brood patches may develop in both sexes.[3]
^"GENERAL BIRD & NEST INFO, Words About Birds, NestWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". nestwatch.org. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
^Turner, J. Scott (1997). "On the Thermal Capacity of a Bird's Egg Warmed by a Brood Patch" (PDF). Physiological Zoology. 70 (4): 470–80. doi:10.1086/515854. PMID 9237308. S2CID 26584982. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2020-07-23 – via EBSCO.
^ abcdeEhrlich, Paul (1988). "Brood Patches". web.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
^Payne, R. B. 2005. The Cuckoos. Oxford University Press. p. 128.
A broodpatch, also known as an incubation patch, is a patch of featherless skin on the underside of birds during the nesting season. Feathers act as inherent...
species such as bird species generally, body heat from the broodingpatch of the brooding parent provides the constant temperature. Several groups, notably...
outward. Before nesting, the females of most bird species gain a bare broodpatch by losing feathers close to the belly. The skin there is well supplied...
one or several patches of bare skin on the ventral surface. These reddish, well-vascularized areas of skin are usually called broodpatches which improve...
male spends the dark, stormy winter incubating the egg against his broodpatch, a patch of skin without feathers. There he balances it on the tops of his...
Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of certain animals, brood parasites, that rely on others to raise...
Brood X (Brood 10), the Great Eastern Brood, is one of 15 broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the eastern United States. The...
chick (or "puffling"). The incubating parent holds the egg against its broodpatch with its wings. The chicks fledge at night. After fledging, the chicks...
altricial, hatching from the egg helpless and naked in most. They lack a broodpatch. The pelicans, shoebill and hamerkop form a clade within the order, with...
with her ovipositor, a long tube. The eggs then attach themselves to a broodpatch, which supplies them with oxygen. After 9 weeks, the eggs begin to hatch...
After implantation in or on the brood pouch or broodpatch, the male incubates the eggs. Many species osmoregulate the brood pouch fluid to maintain proper...
being 79% liquid, and otherwise mostly protein. The female develops a broodpatch of bare skin and plays the main part in incubating the eggs. The male...
dual function of helping to insulate the eggs and exposing the female's broodpatch—an area of bare skin, rich in blood vessels, which transmits heat very...
ISBN 978-0-143-57092-9. St. Clair, Colleen (1992). "Incubation Behavior, BroodPatch Formation and Obligate Brood Reduction in Fiordland Crested Penguins". Behavioral Ecology...
to turn the eggs, which he does about ten times a day. He develops a broodpatch, a bare area of wrinkled skin which is in intimate contact with the eggs...
Scott (1997). "On the Thermal Capacity of a Bird's Egg Warmed by a BroodPatch" (PDF). Physiological Zoology. 70 (4): 470–80. doi:10.1086/515854. PMID 9237308...
related Cradling and turning eggs during incubation. Birds lacking a broodpatch incubate the eggs with their feet – grasping one or even two of them...
Barrionuevo, Melina; Frere, Esteban (2016). "Egg temperature and initial broodpatch area determine hatching asynchrony in Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus"...
"StarCraft: Brood War review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Hilliard, Kyle (April 18, 2017). "StarCraft: Brood War Patch Version 1...
number of other aquatic birds, which all lack external nostrils and a broodpatch, but have all four toes webbed and a gular sac. The closest living relatives...
fibers. The eggs are usually incubated by female cardinals, who have broodpatches, while the male cardinal forages for food. Newly hatched cardinals weigh...
period of 1 to 2 days. [citation needed] The female alone displays a broodpatch. The chicks may be heard peeping in the hours before they hatch. Once...
islands and coasts, normally laying one chalky-blue egg. They lack broodpatches and use their webbed feet to warm the eggs. They reach maturity around...
brood eggs that is characterized by cessation of laying and by marked changes in behavior and physiology". Example usage: "a broody hen". broodpatch...
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