Taste in birds

Taste perception enables the animal to evaluate nutritional value and potential toxicity of food, and converts taste stimuli into physiological stimuli which in turn promote or suppress feed consumption. Taste research traditionally focused on mammalian model species, where taste research in avian was for the most part neglected and mainly descriptive. However, in the past two decades, we witness the emergence of new avian histological, molecular, and behavioral taste research using innovative techniques together with recent genomic data. This chapter will discuss taste perception and mechanisms in birds in the following categories: the different taste modalities, taste buds anatomy, taste receptors and signaling molecules, measuring taste behavior in animals, extra gustatory taste receptors, and taste perception variation between different birds.