1. It’s a bird!

2. Bird Identification For Observations

3. Basic Birding Anatomy

4. Identification of Birds It is very difficult to identify individual birds at times, but there are some very basic way to distinguish species. Birds are broken down into eight main categories:

5. Easiest Way to identify birds. Size How they fly Bill shape Tail shape Habitat – where it is seen. Eye stripes and wing bars

6. Swimmers The swimmers are the ducks and duck-like birds such as loons, grebes, and geese.

7. Aerialists Aerialists are birds that spend most of their time in the air. This group includes the seabirds — gulls, terns, shearwaters, albatrosses, and others.

8. Long-legged Waders This group includes such large birds as the herons, storks, cranes, ibises, and more.

9. Smaller Waders Rails, oystercatchers, plovers, and sandpipers are all smaller wading birds.

10. Fowl-like birds Fowl-like birds resemble chickens. Turkey, grouse, quails, and pheasants are in this group.

11. Birds of Prey In this category are found all the hawks and eagles, as well as the osprey, vultures, and owls.

12. Nonpasserine Land Birds Parrots, pigeons and doves, cuckoos, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and kingfishers are all nonpasserine land birds.

13. Passerine Birds This group includes a wide variety of small to medium-sized land birds such as larks, crows, jays, chickadees, wrens, vireos, warblers, blackbirds, finches, sparrows, and many more. Passerines are often referred to as songbirds or perching birds and are the most numerous group.

14. What’s a bird? What makes a bird a “bird”? Birds have certain characteristics that classify them as birds. The one thing that distinguishes all birds from other animals is….. FEATHERS!

15. What are feathers for? To fly? Can all birds fly?

16. Feather Function Most basic function = protection When its cold, birds trap air underneath and muscles connected to the feathers allow a bird to fluff itself up to entrap more air When birds are hot, they compress the feathers to eliminate these heat- trapping pockets of air

17. Feather Function (cont’d) Also serve as raincoats –Many birds apply oil to the feathers from a gland at the base of the tail (uropygial gland). The gland secretes an oil that the bird squeezes out with its bill and then applies to its feathers for waterproofing and also for inhibition of fungi and/or bacteria growth

18. Preening -The act of cleaning and aligning feathers to optimum condition -Birds can have up to 25,000 feathers!

19. What’s a feather made of? Feathers are made of a protein called keratin (also found in mammalian hair and reptilian scales)

20. Feather Structure Once formed, a feather is a dead structure without living cells The typical contour feather is made up of a central shaft and a vane.

21. Types of Feathers There are 6 commonly recognized types of feathers: 1. Vaned or contour  form the outer coverings of a bird’s body, including the wing and tail feathers

22. Types of Feathers (cont’d) 2. Down: Layer of loosely structured feathers beneath contour feathers which help to trap air near the bird’s body for warmth

23. Types of Feathers (cont’d) 3.Semiplume: Loose and fluffy feathers similar to down feather. Found underneath contour feathers. Provides body insulation and increases the buoyancy of water birds - Falls between a contour feather and a down feather

24. Types of Feathers (cont’d) 4. Filoplume: Small hair- like feathers with a few barbs at the tip of the shaft; they occur among the contour feathers

25. Types of Feathers (cont’d) 5.Bristle: Modified, vaneless contour feathers with only a few barbs at the base. They can occur around the eyes, nostrils, and in flying insect-catching birds around the mouth

26. Types of Feathers (cont’d) 6. Powder down: Feathers that grow continuously and are never molted. The barbs at their tips constantly disintegrate into a fine, talc-like, water-resistant powder. Often abundant in birds that lack preen glands.

27. Types of Feathers (cont’d) Compare the different types!

28. Locomotion Quite varied Most can fly, some can run very well, some swim, and some do combinations of these Some birds cannot fly – penguins, ostriches, and dodo birds

29. Why fly? Makes them efficient hunters Allows escape from hungry predators (like cats) Takes them away from harsh weather (migration)

30. Little fact about flying The peregrine falcon is one of the fastest birds and has been clocked at 90 miles per hour in a dive (Some people say that they can dive at over 200 mph!)

31. Peregrine Falcon

32. Respiratory System In order to breathe during flight, birds have very efficient breathing machinery Most efficient known among all vertebrates Humans and other mammals breathe by means of a cul-de-sac respiration system – inhaled fresh air is mixed with residual stale air remaining in the lungs Birds have air sacs and interconnecting tubes that make it possible for birds to inhale fresh air into their lungs

33. Vision Most highly developed sense Can see in color Can distinguish objects much farther away than humans Birds have big eyes A human eye weighs less than 1% of the weight of the head, whereas a starling’s eye accounts for about 15% of its head weight

34. Vision (cont’d) Nictitating membrane - a third eyelid that is transparent or translucent so that a flying bird can blink and not be momentarily blinded. It also provides protection and helps to keep the eye moistened Some birds that are hunters, like eagles, have eyesight that is five to six times sharper than a person’s. They can spot small prey from a mile away.

35. Skeleton Compared with a mammal or reptile, birds have fewer bones –Example: we have 29 bones in our forelimb, the pigeon has 11 –Example: In a bird, the 1 st and 5 th “fingers” are gone, and the 2 nd is fused to the 3 rd phalange No teeth (they have a beak) or heavy jaws Birds are extremely lightweight Many bones have air spaces and longer limb bones are sometimes completely hollow

36. Body Shape Bilateral symmetry

37. Blood High blood pressure High blood sugar (2x mammal glucose levels) Smaller red blood cells (allows greater surface-to-volume ratios for greater oxygen-absorbing capability)

38. Heart 4-chambered heart Large and powerful Beats much faster than ours –Example: A bird’s heart beats 400 times per minute while resting (1000 beats per minute while flying) while a human’s heart beats about 60-90 times each minute while resting

39. Lungs Oxygen exchange occurs during both inhalation and exhalation http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdrespirat ion.htmlpeople.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdrespirat ion.html

40. Lungs (cont’d) Up to three-quarters of the air a bird breathes is used just for cooling down since they are unable to sweat

41. Metabolism High metabolism for quick reactions and power Endothermic Maintain temperatures around 104-111 degrees Fahrenheit  That’s HOT!!!

42. Digestive System Consume high-energy foods such as insects, seeds, fruits, meat, and nectar Extremely efficient in absorbing energy from small amounts of food Digestion is very rapid

43. Diet Most birds are insectivores Some birds (birds of prey) are carnivores Some birds (hummingbird, grouse, and Canada goose) are mostly herbivores Other birds (starlings) are omnivores Some birds (toucan) are fructivores (fruit- eaters) Birds spend most of their time looking for food

44. Ears No external ears

45. Limbs Leg muscles are close to the body Legs are tucked next to body in flight Forelimbs fold into a “Z” close to the body

46. Sexual Dimorphism Male birds are frequently more brightly colored than females – to attract females for mating purposes Females are more dully colored, helping to camouflage her when caring for her young Sexual Dimorphism

47. Nests Birds build nests for breeding in trees, on cliffs, or on the ground Most birds are taken care of by at least one parent until they are able to fly and get their own food- helpless(nursed)Altricial

48. Precocial young Young are mobile after hatching Chickens, ducks, geese and waders

49. Eggs- (Amniotic Egg) Birds bear their young in hard- shelled eggs which hatch after some incubation time Incubation period differs for all species Some birds, like chickens, lay eggs each day, while others, like the maleo, may go for years before they lay another egg

50. Little fact about eggs The ostrich lays the largest birds’ eggs Their eggs are up to 4.5 x 7 inches across and weigh 3 pounds Needs to be boiled for 2 hours to get a hard- boiled egg

51. Migration Many species migrate to a cooler climate for reproducing and summer feeding, and then return to a warmer climate for the winter It is unknown exactly how birds are able to navigate correctly

52. Arctic Tern & Sooty Shearwater Migrations

53. Classification Belong to the class Aves There are about 9,000 different species of birds Domain: Eukarya Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Various Family: Various Genus: Various Species: Various

54. Miscellaneous Use their beak and claws to get bugs, worms, small mammals, fish, fruit, grain, or nectar Birds play in important part in the natural control of insects and in the dispersal of seeds Some birds (hummingbird) are important pollinators of some flowering plants

55. Miscellaneous (cont’d) Ornithology – the branch of zoology that studies birds Congratulations!! You are now an ornithologist! Way to go! You, ornithologist, you!

56. Bird Populations are in trouble around the globe