Animals
Biology
Adaptations
Evolution
Introduction
Have you ever wondered how different species animals can survive—and thrive—in all sorts of environments, even when the animals seem close related ? For case, pivotal bears swim in the Arctic Ocean where they face negative temperatures whereas other bears live in warmly, southern California. How do they do it ? The solution is adaptations ! Their bodies have special features that allow them to live in their environments. In this action you ‘ll investigate what the adaptations of birds in your area assure you about those birds ‘ lifestyles. Get ready to do some bird-watching !
Background
If you were an animal with a slurred layer of adipose tissue under your hide and a heavy coat of fur, such as a polar hold, would you live in a tropical forest ? No room ! You ‘d be way excessively hot ! But if you lived in the cold of the Arctic, near the North Pole, these adaptations would be necessary to keep you warm. All creatures have adaptations. Some adaptations help animals deal with the climate, such as the arctic yield example above. early adaptations help animals move well in their environments, blend in with their surroundings so they do n’t get eaten by predators or successfully hunt for their dinner .
Birds are animals with a lot of specific and utilitarian adaptations. A major one is the shapes of their feet. Have you always noticed that one kind of shuttlecock ’ s foundation can be wildly different from another type ’ randomness ? For case, chickens and ducks are both birds, but they have identical differently shaped feet. Chicken feet have relatively long scraggy toes with potent, sharp nails, whereas ducks have webbed feet. Chickens ‘ feet allow them to scratch at the ground to find insects and seeds to eat whereas ducks, who live in the water system, have webbing between their toes that helps them paddle.
Materials
• Unless you ‘re going to a menagerie or pet store soon, you ‘ll want a bird-watcher ’ mho field guide to identify birds in your sphere. alternatively, you could use on-line resources to identify the birds you see.
• A place to observe birds. ( This could be your backyard—especially if you have a boo feeder or birdbath—or a ballpark, field, forest, beach, aviary at a menagerie, favored shop or farm that has different types of birds. )
• Binoculars, which are only needed if you will be watching birds from a distance. cheap ones are fine.
• sheet of wallpaper
• Pen or pencil
Read more: Air Fryer Sausages
Preparation
• Get ready to do some bird-watching. Unless you ‘re going to a menagerie or favored memory, have a local bird field guide ready or have access to an on-line resource, so you can identify local species. A good on-line resource you could use is eNature.com .
Procedure
• Bring a sheet of paper, a penitentiary or pencil and your airfield guide ( or access to an on-line resource ) to one of the bird-observation places you decided on. If needed, besides bring binoculars. Observe the birds there. ( constitute sure to have an adult company you. ) What kind of birds do you see?
• Identify the different species of birds you see. ( If you are at a menagerie, pet store or other place where the dame species are labeled or dim-witted to identify, this will be easy. ) Use a battlefield steer or on-line resource to do this.
• What species do you see? On your sheet of newspaper, write their names down.
• look at the feet of each bird species. What type of feet do they have? Write down one of the following seven types of feet for each species :
o Climbing : Two toes in front, two toes in back
oxygen float : Webbed feet
o Running : Strong-legged with two or three slurred toes, all facing forth
o Perching : Three toes in front, one toe in back
o Grasping : clawlike feet with wind talons
oxygen Scratching : Four toes, all with potent nails for digging into the establish
o Wading : long, thin legs and toes
• Tip: If it is unmanageable to clearly see any bird ‘s feet, you could look for pictures ( on-line or in your field guidebook ) of birds that more distinctly show their feet.
• Try to make observations for at least five species. The more you observe, the better your results should be !
• Based entirely on the type of feet each dame has, predict what kind of life style you think that type of bird has. In other words, where do you think it spends most of its time? Is it usually perched in a tree, climbing trees, on the ground or swimming in the water?
• Do some research on each species of dame to find out where it actually spends its time. To do this, you could use the field guide or on-line resources. ( Again, you could use the eNature.com Web site or other resources listed in the “ More to explore ” section on the following page. ) You ‘ll want to look into where each boo nests, roosts ( sleeps ) and forages ( gets food ). Where does each bird spend most of its time?
• Based on your results, how accurate an indicator was each bird’s foot type for the kind of lifestyle it usually leads?
• Extra: In this activity you looked at the general life style of birds, but there are many aspects that go into birds ’ lifestyles, such as where they nest, where they roost and how they get food. Pick one of these aspects and investigate again how well a bird ‘s foot type is as an index of that separate of its life style. How good is a bird’s foot type at, for example, predicting how it gets its food?
• Extra : Try this bodily process again, but this time compare the birds ‘ beaks alternatively of their feet. How well can a bird’s beak be used to predict its lifestyle and/or specifically what it eats? Do birds with different types of beaks eat different things?
• Extra: Pick two divers habitats, like the beach and a forest, and investigate the species of birds in those areas. Do birds in the same habitat have similar types of feet? How about birds in different habitats?
Observations and results
Were you able to use the type of foot that each species of bird has to normally accurately predict that shuttlecock ‘s life style ?
Chickens ‘ feet are adapted to allow them to scratch at the ground and find insects and seeds to eat, whereas ducks ‘ feet are adapted to help them paddle in the water. In this activity you should have seen that a bird ‘s feet are normally a effective indicator of the type of life style it leads. For example, the common house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) has perching-type feet, and it indeed spends a draw of time perching on trees, early plants and structures in different environments. similarly, lovebirds ( of the genus Agapornis ), african grays ( Psittacus erithacus ), cockatiels ( Nymphicus hollandicus ) and early parrots you might find in pet stores and aviaries have climbing feet. not only do they frequently climb in captivity but in the wild they besides spend much time doing this—often climbing on and nesting within trees in wooded areas. The type of feet a bird has, however, might not reflect every expression of its life style. For example, many birds have climbing- or perching-type feet but largely forage on the crunch. This includes mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ), the American robin ( Turdus migratorius ), some kinds of parrots, along with many other shuttlecock species. These adaptations might still be left over from their ancestral species that lived in different environments.
More to explore
All about Birds, from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Bird Feet, from Fernbank Science Center
Field Guides : Birds, from eNature.com
Can You Predict a Bird ‘s Lifestyle Based on Its Feet ?, from Science Buddies
This activeness brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies
