> >If someone must dissect a bird, any bird, why not take it up to ATL in
> >Bothell & do it with an L10-5 ultrasonic probe so the bird can fly away
> >afterwards. Then you can capture & "dissect" the bird as many times as
> >you want.

We had a grad student here (Tom Hahn) who was fed up with lapping birds,
and looked into this possibility. He told me that the internal air sacs
of birds make it extremely difficulty to use ultrasonic imaging to get any
sort of decent image of the gonads (or any other abdominal organ). He
wasn't positive that it was impossible, but was discouraged enough that he
didn't pursue it further.

I also imagine you'd have to use anesthesia to keep the bird still for a
while, while using ultrasonics. It's worth keeping in mind that a quick
operation with little/no anesthesia is often much less stressful for a
bird (with much better survival rates & much lower recovery times) than a
longer operation with anesthesia.

But if anyone figures out how to make ultrasonics fly (groan), more power
to them, & please let me know.

Kathleen