Avian blood

Blood smear from a bird showing the prolific nucleated red blood cells and a variety of white blood cells. The small, compact, purple-stained cells are thrombocytes, the larger pink and purple cells are heterophils and the large purple cells are likely to be basophils. Bird red blood cells differ from mammalian red blood cells by retaining their nuclei. The sample has been stained with haemotoxylin (purple) and eosin (pink)