Bird Feeding Adaptations: How Beaks are Adapted to What Birds Eat

Bird Feeding Adaptations: How Beaks are Adapted to What Birds Eat

 Today we're going to be talking about the incredible world of feeding adaptations and birds so when it comes to food some birds kind of like humans are a generalist birds like Jays or goals will eat pretty much whatever they could find however most birds specialize in certain types of food which means that how they look and how they behave is determined in large part by what they eat so this means that even though different species of birds can look very different if they eat the same thing they'll share a lot of very similar characteristics which means if you learn about those characteristics even if you don't know exactly what a bird is you can still make really good guesses about what it eats.

 The first group of birds were going to be talking about are the ones that you're probably most familiar with these are the seeds specialists which are basically your typical backyard feeder birds seed eaters have sturdy triangular shaped bills this shape allows words that eat seeds to have an incredible amount of power which they need to crack through the protective outer covering of seeds you might notice that these beaks even though they're similar in shape can differ greatly in size basically the bigger a beak is the more powerful it is but there's a trade-off bigger beaks are also a lot clumsier when it comes to handling smaller seeds so if birds that eat seeds have different sizes of bills they can split up the resources in an area and not have to compete with each other as much adaptations don't only have to do with how a bird looks behavior is really important as well.

In fact I'm part of a research project right here in Ithaca that's looking at how feeding behavior helps small birds like chickadees survive harsh cold winters we start by putting up nets to catch the birds and then once we have them we put special colored bands on  their legs that lets us tell who's who the stars of our show our chickadee isn't it mice here and what you could use actually do is they'll cash seeds so they'll take a whole bunch of seeds right now in the fall and they'll hide them all over the place so they have food to eat throughout the winter a single chickadee has a brain that's only about the size of a pea but it can remember where it's stored up to 3,000 different seeds that's the kind of memory power that puts most humans to shame now seeds aren't the only thing that plants have to offer when it comes to food fruits and berries are sweet snacks enjoyed by a variety of bird species the most familiar of which are probably Orioles however the real specialists are the nectar eaters that's right I'm talking about hummingbirds unlike seed eaters hummingbirds have these long fine bills they're not very strong but they're perfect for allowing these birds to reach deep inside of flowers where the nectar is hidden but that's not the whole story flowers it turns out aren't all shaped the same way.

Hummingbird beaks can be short or long straight or very curved each beak is kind of like a puzzle piece specifically shaped to fit into a specific type of flower even though hummingbirds are small they require a huge amount of energy this is because they have very high metabolisms if they're going to survive the night some hummingbirds can enter a state called torpor which is basically like a form of short-term hibernation while in torpor hummingbirds can slow down their heart rate from over 1200 beats per minute to as low as 50 beats per minute without a doubt hummingbirds are the masters of a fast paced high-energy lifestyle .

but our next group of birds has a set of even more incredible adaptations that helps them live life in or on the water where fish is what's on the dinner menu there are many different ways to catch a fish but most birds rely on a beak shape that's long sturdy and pointed sort of like a spear which allows them to catch and hold on to slippery.

Fish underwater birds that live on or near the water have to try and keep their feathers dry if they want to be able to fly birds like herons and egrets solve this problem by having long stilt like legs which basically lets them stay above the water altogether when it comes to actually eating the fish once you have it in your bill the bird has to kind of toss it up rearrange it to where it's going the right way to get down their throat and then try and chug it down without it slipping out and getting back into the water other birds that eat fish actually dive below the water to find their food these birds typically have very waterproof feathers which usually involves some kind of oily coating on the outside that helps the water to run straight off of them kind of like a rain jacket these birds also tend to have webbed feet which allows them to be very powerful swimmers because they have more surface area to push the water sort of like when you wear flippers to swim around Chicanos have very long toes that spreads out their body mass over a larger area so they can walk on top of plants like water lilies.Then there's cormorants which take sort of an odd approach these birds dive below the water to catch their food but they don't have very waterproof feathers this is why a lot of times when you see cormorants they'll be sitting on the log with their wings held out kind of at their sides which is basically them just drying off their feathers after a swim now we've talked a bit about behavioral adaptations and birds like chickadees and hummingbirds but birds that eat fish have some of the coolest behavioral adaptations around herons and egrets will remain perfectly still until just the right moment to strike others take a more active approach you may have seen some birds walking around shaking their legs like this under the water what they're doing is trying to scare up any small fish or bugs or shrimp that are hiding down in the mud under the water.

Black herons jump around like ballet dancers they hold their wings out in front of them a little patch of shade and then when a fish swims in thinking it's a safe place to hide the Heron strikes and gets its meal one final thing worth mentioning is that not all birds that live around the water eat fish many species of ducks and geese have broad flat bills that are perfect for straining aquatic plants out of the water .

Our next group of birds are powerful hunters on land and in the air where they feed on small mammals and even other birds Raptors are meat eaters and typically include hawks eagles falcons owls and vultures Raptors hunt in all sorts of different environments from soaring in the open sky to lurking in the dense forests but not all birds that eat meat are Raptors so think about the fish eaters we just talked about they use their beaks in order to catch their meals Raptors are distinguished by the fact that they kill their prey with their feet Raptor feet are incredibly strong and equipped with sharp talons which are hooked claws that they use to grab and hold on to their prey Raptor beaks are very hooked and sharp for tearing through meat they're also strong enough to crack through bone Raptors in general all have very good eyesight however let's talk a little bit about owls for an owl to be able to catch mice of the dark.

What kind of adaptations doesn't need to have you need good eyesight in fact you need better than good you need to be able to see really well in the dark owls also have exceptional hearing so they can pinpoint where a mouse is in the leaves even if they can't see it some people mistake the ear tufts and owls as actual ears when in fact their ears are lower on their head these ear tufts are just feathers which act as camouflage to help them blend into the bark of trees owls also have very special feathers the patterns on these feathers tend to be camouflage which allows the Owls to hide from their prey the structure of these feathers is all.

So very unique these feathers tend to be very soft and sort of fluffy on top all feathers also have this serrated edge in front and what these two adaptations do is they allow the air flowing over the feather to be muffled producing silent flight so when an owl is hunting after a mouse it doesn't want it to hear it coming but because of these special feather adaptations an owl can sneak up on its prey silently and the mouse never hears it coming okay so now we've talked about seeds and flowers fish and other animals but I've saved the biggest and most important food group for last any guesses.

The answer is insects insects are an important food source for a large number of birds they're high in protein and you can find them pretty much anywhere so even birds like the seed eaters we talked about that specialize on other types of food will still eat insects if they have the chance insects are very abundant up here in the north in the temperate area but only during the summer because the cold temperatures kill off most insects.

There are also a few groups of birds that are specially adapted to live off insects Warblers have small short bills that they used to pick insects off of branches or leaves which is called gleaning a lot of times you can see these birds hopping around in the bushes or the tops of trees looking for insects hiding beneath branches many shorebirds like sandpipers have long thin probing bills that they use to dig into the mud where bugs might be hiding .

Another group of birds catches insects in midair Swift's swallows and fly catchers have relatively short stubby unimpressive bills but their mouths are really large sort of like a bug net it gives them extra surface area to go down insects in the air now if you're a bird hunting insects in midair the last thing you want is for them to slap into your face.

This is why many insect eating birds have special feathers called Rick told bristles which are these long skinny very stiff feathers that stick up in front of their face sort of like this and act like a windshield to keep the bugs from slopping into their eyes some birds dig for insects in the sides of trees these birds typically have beaks that are short blunt and chisel like very sturdy so that they can dig into the sides of trees or lift up pieces of bark looking for insects.

 The most familiar examples are probably woodpeckers woodpeckers spend most of their time hang on to the sides of trees so they have tail feathers that are incredibly stiff allowing them to prop up against the side they also have Zygo dactyl that they have two toes pointed forward and two pointed back and this allows them to better cling on to the sides of trees as they're hopping up and down now that you've learned about some of the key feeding adaptations and birds head outside and find some birds take a look at their beak their feet their feathers and how they act and see if you can figure out what it is they eat