Physical Characteristics

Before the children went outside with their binoculars they learned, during classroom lessons and discussions, about the physical characteristics of birds.

Birds come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, but they all have the following characteristics in common.

1. Bills or Beaks
2. Feet
3. Feathers
4. Bones

Bill Adaptations:

• preening
• drinking
• defense
• building nests

Bill shape is determined by the food the bird eats. Bills or beaks are also used for preening, drinking, defense and nest building. Bills have different shapes that have been adapted for eating different foods.

• Conical: seed eaters such as sparrows, (house sparrows) and finches (goldfinches, cardinals) have triangular, thick bills for cracking seeds.
• Spear shaped: waders such as Great Blue Herons have spear shaped bills for spearing fish.
• Probing or Drilling: downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, flickers and other tree clinging birds have thin, powerful bills for drilling wood and picking invertebrates out of bark.
• Sipping: nectar sipping birds such as the hummingbirds, have thin bills which fit perfectly into flowers in order to sip nectar. The Ruby Throated Hummingbird, a nectar sipping bird, is the only hummingbird species in the Northeastern United States.

Drawing of a Ruby Throated Hummingbird

• Straining: waterfowl, such as ducks, geese and swans have flat bills for straining small fish, tadpoles, snails and plants in the water.

Mute Swan with wide, flat, straining bill

• Flesh-tearing: birds of prey such as the Red Tailed Hawk have sharp, hooked bills for tearing flesh of prey:

Flesh tearing bill of the Golden Eagle

Questions

After reading the information on bill adaptations, try and answer these questions:

l. Bills are used for:

2. Bill shape is determined by:

3. Bill adaptations: draw a bill shape and label it: for example is it conical, flesh tearing, spearing, etc.?

Feet Adaptations: foot shape is determined by habitat: where birds live, hunt and feed. Bird toes are arranged in different ways which help them to stand, hunt, swim, climb and perch. Birds' feet come in many shapes and sizes.

Feet Adaptations:

• Perching feet have three toes in front and one in back. All perching birds, such as finches and sparrows, have the perching foot, which is especially designed for clasping twigs.
• Tree clinging or zygodactyl toes define the woodpecker's foot, with two toes in front and two in back. The zygodactyl foot is perfectly suited to climbing up tree trunks.
• Webbed feet such as the duck's paddle-shaped foot, have webbing between the toes and are excellent for swimming. All waterfowl such as ducks, swans and geese have webbed feet.

Webbed feet of the Mute Swan

• Talons for killing and grasping prey belong to birds of prey such as hawks, eagles, and falcons.
• Wading feet belonging to long legged and short legged waders such as herons and egrets have 3 long toes forward and one long toe in the back. The toes are much longer than perching toes and have some webbing between them which keeps them from sinking into the muddy river, pond, lake or marsh bottoms.

Bills and Talons of Birds of Prey

On January 22, 1998, the children were treated to an assembly by the Theodore Roosevelt Bird Sanctuary from Oyster Bay, Long Island. Tim McErlean arrived at The Elisabeth Morrow School with different birds of prey. The following are some examples:

Red Tailed Hawk

 

Turkey Vulture

 

Barn Owl by Mattie

Peregrine Falcon

All of these birds of prey are native species in the Northeast. Many of these birds live throughout North America. These photographs were taken by Marjorie Pangione, assistant to Principal Germaine DiPaolo of Morrow House. Mrs. Pangione is not only a bird lover, but is Vice President of the local nature preserve, Greenbrook Nature Sanctuary which is part of the Palisades Interstate Park.

The children saw, firsthand the sharp and hooked bill of the bird of prey.

Its sharp talons are used for catching and grasping prey.

Foot and talons of the Red Tailed Hawk by Jonathan

Questions:

1. After reading the information on bill adaptations, draw a bird's bill and label it: for example, is it a bird of prey, a wading bird, a woodpecker?

2. After reading the information on feet adaptation, draw a bird's foot and label it: for example, is it a webbed foot, a wading foot, a tree clinging foot, a perching foot, or talons?

Feathers

All birds have feathers for:

• warmth,
• keeping dry
• flight
• color and patterns for attracting mates

Bird Bones

Bird bones are

• light,
• hollow
• have a keel or breast bone providing strong attachment for wing muscles so that birds can fly.

Questions

After reading the information on feathers and bird bones, see if you can answer the following questions:

1. How do birds use their feathers?

2. How are bird skeletons different from human skeletons?

Return to Introduction

Types of Birds

Migration and Range

Why Birds Are Important

Humans Helping Birds