Acid-base balance and urinary acidification in birds.

This essay will treat, first, the defended parameters of acid-base status in avian blood and their modification under conditions pertinent to the life of birds, and, second, urinary acidification and its role in maintenance of acid-base balance. Of the two topics, urinary acidification is of particular interest to the author, has received less sustained attention experimentally and has been infrequently reviewed (Sykes, 1971), so it will receive attention here. The reports cited in the essay concern primarily adult birds outside periods of egg-laying.