Sea Birds Flashcards
What types of birds can be found in the four major groups
Penguins, Pelicans, Guls, Albatrossess, Diving
How have different seabirds adapted for life at sea? Why do they have salt glands?
Some have small stream line bodies for diving, some have bigger mouths for scooping up water and fish, some have thick feathers to fight the cold; because they sometimes drink the salt water in the act of feeding
Describe the different feeding strategies and how they are related to their bill shape.
Straight and narrow beaks are good for divers who swallow whole; Longer lower beaks are good for feeding while above water; Heavy but streamline beaks are good for those that dive deeper for their prey; Short hooked beaks are good for those that has to hold or tear at their food
Are seabirds typically monogamous or polygamous? Do they feed in colonies or solitary groups? Where do they usually breed? What are the advantages in colonies?
Monogamous; breed in colonies; They usually breed near the food source; They advantage is to confuse predators
Where are penguins found? what do they feed on? How have they adapted for sea life?
They are found in the Antarctic; They feed on fish and squid, some krill; they don’t have muscles in their feed and tendons to walk on ice and have thick feathers for swimming and dense bones
Describe the breeding pattern of emperor penguins
They have monogamous mating. The male feeds then mates with female. The male takes care of the egg while the mother feeds. Then the mother comes back shortly after the chick has hatched to nurse it and then the dad goes off to feed again.
What is meant by “dynamic soaring” when talking about albatrosses? How far can they travel and what allows them to do so?
a flying technique used to gain energy by repeatedly crossing the boundary between air masses of significantly different velocity.; 10k km because they are using dynamic soaring and doesnt take as much energy
How do frigate birds obtain food? Cormorants? Pelicans?
They force other birds to regurgitate their fish in mid air ; they dive and pursue the fish; plunge into water and catch fish in pouch
What do gulls feed on?
fish, crustaceans dead or alive , human refuse, fruits, anything they can get their beaks on
What do puffins eat? Where do puffins live?
fish and zooplankton; cliffs on coastal regions and off shore islands
What is a shorebird? (What makes them different from a seabird?)
migratory birds that scurry along the shore looking for food ; They have longer legs, pointed beaks for digging and pointed wings
How do many shorebirds obtain food/ what are they feeding on? How does their bill reflect their feeding strategy
Many of them dig and pick in the mud or sand and feed on worms, crustaceans, fish and invertebrates ; The shorter billed birds are more likely to pick at the surface and the longer slimmer billed birds are going to dig in to the sand or mud for their prey
What are some of the major threats to seabirds and shorebirds?
Pollution, they don’t know not to eat the trash and it clogs up their intestines, bycatch, coastal developments and toxic algae blooms
