How Do Baby Birds Breathe Inside The Eggs Or How Do They Get Oxygen Inside The Egg Shell?

Everyone knows that human babies develop inside the mother's womb until they are born and get all the essential things from inside the mother's body that is necessary for their development. But birds lay eggs and an egg is entirely shut out from the outside world and has no visible holes or openings, so then where does the baby bird inside the egg get oxygen to breathe? As every animal needs oxygen to survive, so the chick must get air somehow.

The egg is such an incredible work of nature that has been designed in such a way that it keeps all the necessary things for the development of a chick. All the basic biological needs are met in the egg, but still, the question remains, where does the oxygen come from to breathe inside it, as it does not attach to the mother's body.

When we enlarge any small object through a magnifying glass or microscope, we are able to see even those things which are not normally visible to us. Similarly, when we enlarge an egg through a magnifying glass, we come to know that the white and hard layer of calcium carbonate which is made on top of the egg (Eggshell), has tiny pores inside it. You will be surprised to know that there are more than 7,000 pores in the shell of a chicken egg. Through these tiny pores, oxygen enters the egg, and carbon dioxide releases the egg. Along with this, a network of cells is also laid inside the egg, which serves to deliver water to the chick.

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Inside the egg, there are two membranes directly under the shell. Also, there is an air cell in between these two membranes, known as an air sac, which supplies oxygen to the baby inside. But the air sac has some capacity to hold the oxygen to a certain limit, which means it needs to be refilled. During this development process of the chick, oxygen from the air sac is used up and replaced by carbon dioxide released by the chick. Therefore, it becomes quite necessary to remove the carbon dioxide from the egg. 

As soon as the air comes inside the egg through the small pores, the air cell keeps on passing the fresh oxygen to the baby bird and carbon dioxide keeps sending out. This is how a chick manages to survive inside an egg.