The Best Bits of Birds

Birds wings are flat on the bottom and curved on the top. As the wing moves through air the air on top has a longer way to go than the air moving over the bottom. This makes low pressure over the top and higher pressure over the bottom. The wind pulls the wing up from the top and pushes it up from the bottom. It creates "lift". Airplane wings work the same way.

The shape of the birds wings can tell you a lot about how it lives and hunts.

(1) This wing shape is for gliding. It's long and narrow. The air at wing tips and along the back side of the wing create little swirls of wind. This causes drag and slows the bird down. With this pointed tip a bird can glide and make small changes. Gulls and sea birds have this shape. Terns have this shape as well. This shape helps the bird to hover, turn and dive for food in the water as you can see here.

(2) This wing shape is broad and long and the ends have little "fingers" of feathers. These little "fingers" help the bird make small changes while gliding. Birds with this shape can stay high in the air for a long time while using the up drafts caused by hot air rising. These birds soar with little or no flapping while they look for food. Vultures have this wing shape.

(3) These wings are medium length. They are a bit pointed and tend to point backwards. These wings are a bit slow to take off the ground but are quicker in the air and are good for long distance flying. Ducks have this wing shape.

No Photo You can always tell a duck when it's flying. They flap their wings very fast. The shape isn't very good for soaring but they can go a long distance with it and it's great for maneuverablity. Unfortuantly, it's also very difficult to catch a photograph of a duck in the air.

(4) These wings are short and wide. They are great for grabbing air quickly for lift off but not too good for long distance flying. Pheasants have this shape. They can explode off the ground but they're not the greatest flyers. Ibis also have this wing shape.

Now that you know the basic shapes of wings you can figure out what a bird does by its wing. We can always tell an Osprey in flight even if it's so high we can't see the colors of the bird. We can tell by it's wing shape. An Ospreys wing shape has little fingers like #2. It's very much like the Vulture so the Osprey can soar well. But on the other hand the wing is also very long like the gulls in # 1, so the Osprey can also glide over water like the gull. Next, the hawk has the same basic shape with fingers as the vulture does but it's wing is shorter. This makes for the quicker direction changes a hawk needs for hunting but the hawk can still soar for long times in the air.

By the way, could you imagine a bird with big wings like the vulture or Albatross trying to fly through a forest? It would thunk it's wings on all the branches. A pheasant has short wide wings but it spends most of it's time on the ground and uses it's wings to get away quickly. Owls have short wings that can grab air quickly. It also has fingers that help it make direction changes.

Go peek at the Ibis and guess how it uses it's wings. I've watched them. They peck along the ground and when startled they take off quick. I've seen a flock come in. They do ok flying but they have to flap most of the time until they set their wings to land then they hold their wings up and flap in different directions to land on the exact spot they want to. I've even seen them flap quickly and actually back up in the air a few feet off the ground. Ibis are social birds that live in flocks. Landing on a friend is just bad manners.

Left
If you're as light as a feather and you did this what do you think the effect would be? It looks very much like a parachute!








This crow is controlling his direction in the air as he puts the brakes on with his tail. Right


For a more detailed explanation see the Earthlife Bird Flight page. (The illustrations were obtained from that site)

Beaks and Food A birds beak is it's universal tool. Birds use their beaks for eating, defense, feeding young, gathering nesting materials, building nests, preening, scratching, courting and attacking. The shape and size of a birds beak is specific for the type of food it eats. A beak is actually is a part of its skull that is covered with a tough layer of skin. Filtering: Ducks have flat beaks with small tooth-like edges to filter plant food from mud and water. Probing: Ibis, Lipkins, and Black-necked Stilts have probing beaks to poke around in plants and grass to find food. Catching Insects: Blackbirds like the Crow and song birds have beaks to catch insects. Cracking Seeds: Some song birds such as the Cardinal have beaks designed for seeds. Tearing Meat: Birds of prey such as the Osprey have sharp hooked beaks to tear meat. Mixed: Birds with beaks that are combinations of the above eat a vairety of food. The Black-crowned Night Heron and Tri-colored Herons here eat mainly fish but will also eat amphibians, crustaceans, leeches, worms and insects. The Gallinule, which has a shorter beak that the herons, will also eat fruit and plants as well as worms, leeches, eggs and insects.

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Feet

Most birds have three forward toes and a 4th one facing backwards.

Grasping: Large curved claws to catch prey.

Scratching: Long nail like toes to scratch in the dirt.

Swimming: Webbed toes to use like paddles for swimming.

Perching: The 4th backward toe is long to reach around branches.

Running: Many fast running birds don't have a backward facing toe and only have 3 forward toes.

Climbing: Many birds who climb the sides of trees have two forward facing toes and two backward facing toes.


Duck
Aningha







Birds with webbed feet are swimmers.


Semi-aquatic Birds like the coot have lobed feet that helps them walk on top of plants in the marsh. They are also good for walking on dry land.

These feet belong to the heron with long legs and long toes. They can walk on mucky marsh bottoms.

The Ibis has shorter toes and walks on land to look for food.

Anyone who's had a pet bird knows these feet. The feet shown here are designed for grabing branches and belong to the parrot.