Class Aves:
The Aquatic Birds
Of Southeast Texas
What makes a bird AQUATIC?
• Beak structure
• Foot structure
• Leg length
• Neck length
A spearlike beak indicates a fish diet!
Common Egret
Snowy Egret
Long legs indicate a stalking method of hunting.
Great Blue Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-heron
Green Heron
More fish-eaters, but short legs indicate a swimmer!
Anhinga
Double-crested Cormorant
Common Merganser
Common Loon
Short neck and legs, no webbed feet, but spearlikebeak – how does this bird fish?
A – by diving
Belted Kingfisher
The chickenlike beak alllows these birds to eat plant material.
Pied-billed Grebe
Common Moorhen
American Coot
The Sora – another chickenlike aquatic bird.
The gull’s and killdeer’s beaks allow for general purpose feeding, while the sandpiper’s bill makes an excellent probe.
Killdeer
Ringed-billed Gull
Spotted Sandpiper
Long legs allow ibis and storks to wade, but with narrower decurved beaks, they feed on invertebrates.
White Ibis
Scooped bill makes an excellent strainer forplants, invertebrates,even small fish!
Northern Pintail
Hooded Merganser
Northern Shoveler
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Webbed feet and
short, powerful legs
for effective swimming
Blue-winged Teal
Wood Duck Mallard
A Crayfish’s nightmare: Hawks by day, Owls by night
Red-shouldered Hawk Barred Owl
Strong talons and heavy beaks allowthese raptors to prey on fish!
Bald Eagle
Osprey
Swallows are often seen by water because their wide gapes and fluid flight make them supreme insectivores!
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Warblers and wrens also hunt for insects, using their needle-like beaks to probeamongst the foliage.
Marsh Wren
Common Yellowthroat
The triangular beak of the Red-winged Blackbird, signifies an all omnivorous diet of insects, fruits, and seeds.
Male
Female
Avian Aquatics Assignment
Avian ConstructionWith your partner, draw OR make a model of TWO imaginary aquatic birds – one plant eater, one fish eater - then describe in a brief paragraph the features you have included the make it suitable for an aquatic lifestyle.
DUE tomorrow – Friday, 3 December, at beginning of period.
Place the birds in this presentation in their proper order. Then find the family of each. Construct a cladogram with this
information. Order GaviiformesOrder AnseriformesOrder CoraciiformesOrder StrigiformesOrder GruiformesOrder CiconiiformesOrder Passeriformes http://www.earthlife.net/birds/orders.html