1. Marine Birds
Class Aves

2. Marine Bird Characteristics
What makes a seabird different from a terrestrial bird?
Seabirds are those birds which spend a significant part of their lives at sea
Differ widely in flying skills and feeding mechanisms
Most are predators that feed at sea
Nest on land

3. Marine Bird Characteristics
Marine birds have many advantages that allow them to live in a wide variety of environments
Endotherms with a four-chambered heart
Internal fertilization and an amniotic egg that is more resistant to water loss
Waterproof feathers and wings
Hollow bones which aid in flight
A. Characteristics of Birds
What characteristics are shared by organisms in class Aves?
1. Birds and the ocean go hand-in-hand. Every coastal marine environment has bird species that have found a niche there.
2. Many scientists consider birds indicators of a marine ecosystem’s richness and health.
a. The more types and quantities of birds, the greater the richness and health.
3. Birds are vertebrates in class Aves, a huge group consisting of about 10,000 species.
4. Members of this class share several characteristics, including feathers, which are unique to this class.
5. Birds are also classified based on having forelimbs that are wings, a fourchambered heart, and laying internally fertilized eggs.

4. Marine Bird Characteristics
Endotherms with a 4-chambered heart
Warm-blooded
This allows them to live in a wide variety of environments
Higher metabolism supplies the large amounts of energy needed for active flight
Albatross
Blue-footed Booby

5. Marine Bird Characteristics
Waterproof feathers
No other organism has feathers
Feathers are lightweight and help insulate the animal’s body, allowing it to maintain a higher temperature than its surroundings
Waterproofing is provided by oil from a gland above the base of the tail
The birds rub the oil into their feathers with their beaks, known as preening

6. Marine Bird Characteristics
Wings with hollow bones
Bird’s forelimbs have adapted into wings for flight
Hollow bones allow birds to fly more easily

7. Marine Bird Characteristics
Marine birds have internal fertilization
They lay amniotic eggs that are more resistant to water loss than their ancestors, the reptiles
Every species of bird has a different mating and breeding ritual, but all birds nest on land
The parent provides extensive care until the young is grown
Great Egret

8. Special Adaptations
Can you think of any adaptations that seabirds may have that aid them in the water?
Salt glands to rid extra salt from the body
Near their nose and can ‘sneeze’ the salt out
Webbed feet for swimming and floating on the surface.
Specialized beaks with no teeth to hunt for prey
What adaptations to the marine environments do the various bird species exhibit?
9. Because of their role in the marine and other aquatic environments, many species of birds exhibit related adaptations.
10. Seabirds have webbed feet for swimming efficiently while floating on the surface.
11. Most species have bill adaptations suited to their marine prey.
a. For instance, the pelican is well known for its pouched lower jaw that aids it in capturing fish.
12. The cormorant not only flies over the water, but in it, descending several meters in pursuit of its prey.
13. Some birds, like the albatross, have wings and flight characteristics adapted to long-duration flying over wide expanses of water.

9. Salt Glands Osmoregulation - “salt glands”
Located above their eyes that process excess salt
The glands produce a salty solution that is excreted through the birds’ nostrils and down grooves of their beaks, where it drips off.

10. Feet Adaptations
There are several lengths of legs and types of feet found on sea birds
Birds that spend most of their time at sea have short, stocky legs and partially webbed feet
Short legs work as oars and the webbed feet work as a paddle
Birds that spend most of their time at the intertidal zone have long, thin legs and webbed feet for swimming

11. Beak Adaptations What do you think marine birds eat?
How do you think they obtain their food?
Shape of the beak gives clues to the kind of food the bird eats
Curved projections at the tips help predatory birds
Different lengths and curvatures of bills determines which prey can be reached by probing in the sand.
Pelicans, cormorants and frigate birds have a distensible pouch to capture fish

12. Beak Adaptations Pelicans
dive and scoop fish up in their pouched bills and drain the water before swallowing their catch
Cormorants
pursue fish under water, seizing their prey with their hooked beaks
Flamingos
filter small organisms out of the water
Long billed, long legged birds
wade in shallow water using their bills to probe in the mud or sand to pluck prey out
Penguins
dive to great depths get their meals
Terns and gulls
soar over the water and catch fish
at the surface

14. Beak Description Activity
Shorebirds
1. This beak is extra long allowing the bird to probe for deep lying prey
Godwits

15. Beak Description Activity
Shorebirds
2. This relatively short and stalky beak allows the bird to probe for shallow lying prey
Terns

16. Beak Description Activity
Shorebirds
3. This beak is medium in length, allowing the bird to probe for medium depth prey
4. This beak has lamellae, which filters the water for small particles like bacteria and plankton
Sandpiper
Flamingo

17. Beak Description Activity
Murre
Open Water Feeders
5. This straight, narrow beak is used for capturing prey that is swallowed whole.
Cormorant

18. Beak Description Activity
Open Water Feeders
6. This short, heavy hooked beak is ideal for holding and tearing prey too large to be swallowed whole. This beak is best for shallow feeding because its shape and size interfere with fast underwater pursuit.
Gull

19. Beak Description Activity
Open Water Feeders
7. This beak is heavy and streamlined, which makes it good for deep diving. The heavy structure allows the bird to feed on tougher, crunchier prey.
Puffin

20. Beak Description Activity
Open Water Feeders
8. This beak has a longer lower mandible, which allows the bird to feed while flying. The beak ‘skims’ the surface of the water for prey.
Skimmers
Pelican

21. Importance to Marine Ecosystem
Can you explain the importance of seabirds?
Many scientists consider birds indicators of a marine ecosystem’s richness and health.
The more types and quantities of birds, the greater the richness and health.
They are predators that consume fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
In turn they are prey to marine mammals and sharks.
They supply guano – a significant source of nutrients, specially organic nitrogen important to sea life.
What roles do birds play in marine ecosystems?
6. Birds play myriad roles in marine ecosystems.
7. They’re predators that consume fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
a. At times, they’re also prey to marine mammals and even sharks.
8. Seabirds supply guano (droppings), which is a significant source of nutrients to the marine ecosystem.
a. This is especially true of organic nitrogen, which scientists think is produced primarily on land.
b. Thus, birds that drop guano near the ocean help provide the marine ecosystem with organic nitrogen compounds.

22. Importance to the Ecosystem
They’re predators that consume fish, crustaceans, and mollusks
They are prey to marine mammals and sharks
Seabirds supply guano (droppings)– a significant source of nutrients, especially organic Nitrogen
What roles do birds play in marine ecosystems?
6. Birds play myriad roles in marine ecosystems.
7. They’re predators that consume fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
a. At times, they’re also prey to marine mammals and even sharks.
8. Seabirds supply guano (droppings), which is a significant source of nutrients to the marine ecosystem.

23. Diversity of Marine Birds
What kind of marine birds do you know?
List as many seabirds and their adaptations that you can think of on your paper
Wood Stork

24. Shorebirds or Waders
Have long, legs and thin, sharp bills that they use to feed in the intertidal zone
Oystercatchers – long, blunt orange bills that are vertically flattened. They feed on partially opened clams, mussels and oysters as wells as other organisms in the sand
Sandpipers – scurry across the sand as the surf and tide retreats feeding on small crustaceans and mollusks. Some make annual migrations close to 6000 miles.
Herons – most widespread family of wading birds. Their skinny legs and long necks aid in hunting. They hunt small fish and crustaceans in shallow water by standing still and waiting for their prey to come into range.

25. Gulls
Gulls are noisy, aggressive birds that are efficient predators and scavengers.
They eat the eggs and young of other birds, steal prey from other birds and occasionally eat the young of other gulls.
They are not picky eaters
They have a worldwide distribution and are found everywhere the land and ocean meet
Have webbed feet but do not usually stray far from land
Usually travel in large groups and can be seen following fishing boats
Black-backed gull
Laughing Gull

26. Skimmers or Scissorbills
They fish along the coast by flying along with their lower bill just beneath the surface
They have two unusual features
Pupils that are vertical slits
Lower jaw that is flexible and protrudes much farther than the upper bill
Black Skimmer

27. Auks, Puffins and Murres
These birds are awkward on land
In the water, they are remarkably agile, using their swimming wings to fly through the water
They prey on fish, squid and shrimp
The Great Auk is extinct
They spend their winters in offshore waters and then gather in dense, noisy colonies in the cliffs along the Northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans in early spring.
Thick-billed Murre

28. Pelicans Most are found in coastal areas
Pelicans feed just under the surface of the water, using their large gular pouches as nets.
They usually patrol about 30 feet above the water and when they see a school of fish, it folds its wings back and then crashes into the water scooping up large numbers of fish
It must then let the water drain from its pouch before it can become airborne again.
Have webs between all four toes

31. Cormorants Some of the most adept avian fishers
Lack oil glands to waterproof their feathers, so they must dry their wings on land
Swimming along the surface, they scan the water for fish and then plunge to spectacular depths in pursuit of their prey
They are very strong swimmers, using their webbed feet for propulsion and keeping their wings folded close to its sides to be more streamlined

32. Cormorant Fishing

33. Tubenoses Petrels, albatrosses and shearwaters
Have a distinctive nose that may function in detecting odors and eliminating excess salts
Albatrosses
Suburb gliders with wings nearly 11 feet long, the largest of any bird
Capable of cruising the currents of turbulent ocean air for hours at a time with barely the flick of a wing
Come to land only to breed and can spend up to two years at sea before returning to breed
Greater Shearwater
Albatross

34. Penguins Most highly adapted birds to life in the sea
They are flightless
Their bones are heavier than those of other birds to reduce buoyancy.
On land, penguins are somewhat awkward.
They move by hopping, waddling, or tobogganing on their bellies with their flipper-like wings
Chinstrap Penguin

35. Penguins Order Sphenisciformes Only found in southern hemisphere
Cannot fly
Spend as much as 75% of their time under water

36. Penguins In the sea, they are as swift and agile
They can swim at speeds of 15 miles per hour for long distances and speeds twice that if pursuing prey
Their torpedo-shaped bodies are streamlined to offer less resistance in the water
Their flat, webbed feet are used for steering
They feed on fish, squid, and krill that are under the water
They are preyed upon by leopard seals and killer whales
Adelie Penguins
King Penguins

37. Penguins
All but one of the species live in Antarctica and other cold regions of the southern hemisphere
The exception is the Galapagos penguin, which lives on the equator
It can survive this region because of the cold, food-rich waters
Protection against low temperatures is provided by a layer of fat under the skin and cold air is trapped by the dense, waterproof feathers – acting like a down coat.
Macroni Penguin
Galapagos Penguin
Jackass Penguins

38. Penguins Breeding rituals vary from species to species
Emperor penguins form life-long pairs
The male incubates a single large egg during Antarctic winter
The female leaves to feed as soon as she lays the egg.
The male must keep the egg warm by holding it between his feet and against his body for 64 days of dreadful winter cold.
Adelie Penguins
Emperor Penguins

39. Penguins
Reproduction is timed so that the egg hatches during the productive Antarctic summer, when food is most plentiful
The parents take turns feeding the chick
Returning parents identify their chick among thousands by its voice and appearance.
Rockhopper Penguin Rookery
Emperor Penguin Chick