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