Ornithology Flashcards

Flashcards covering bird orders, anatomy, and foraging techniques.

Struthioniformes

Flightless birds with flat keels, herbivorous or omnivorous, nest terrestrially, males incubate eggs, includes largest extant bird species.

Pelecaniformes

Piscivorous birds in marine habitats with webbed feet and diving abilities; includes tropicbirds, pelicans, gannets, cormorants, darters, and frigatebirds.

Ciconiiformes

Piscivorous birds of inland freshwater with long legs and necks; herons, storks, shoebills, ibises, and spoonbills.

Anseriformes

Aquatic birds with webbed feet; geese and ducks are herbivorous, sawbills are piscivorous; screamers, ducks, geese, and swans.

Falconiformes

Birds of prey with sickle-like talons and bills, carnivorous, hunt by sight and smell; hawks, eagles, falcons, vultures, osprey, and secretary bird.

Galliformes

Game birds with extreme sexual dimorphism, herbivores as adults, chicks eat insects, indeterminate layers; grouse, pheasants, and partridges.

Charadriiformes

Diverse group of migratory birds including waders, gulls, and auks; gulls, terns, auks, and oystercatchers.

Columbiformes

Birds with a diet of fruit, seeds and pulp that lay two eggs in poor nests; pigeons and doves.

Strigiformes

Nocturnal birds with rounded heads, large eyes, facial discs for focusing noise, specialized ear openings, and silent flight; owls.

Piciformes

Birds that nest in cavities with stiff tails and tough skins; woodpeckers, toucans, and honeyguides.

Passeriformes

Passerines or songbirds with small stature, high metabolism, large brains, and developed vocalizations; many garden birds.

Gruiformes

Birds with long legs and dagger-like bills for foraging amphibians in wetlands; cranes, coots, and rails.

Medullary bone

Honeycomb-like bone structure ideal for calcium regulation during migration.

Gizzard

Replaces teeth; grinds food

Proventriculus

Secretes pepsin, HCl, and mucus upon the arrival of food in birds.

Gizzard

The muscular part of the avian stomach that grinds food, lined with koilin.

Koilin

A sandpaper-like material lining the gizzard used to grind food.

Caecum

Can be voluminous or absent depending upon the species; developed predominantly in herbivores and omnivores.

Generalist diet

Omnivore

Frugivores

Fruit-eaters

Granivores

Seeds and grains

Graminivores

Grass

Exudativores

plant or insect exudates such as gum and sap

Skimming

a foraging strategy whereby prey is detected through touch and the upper mandible will snap shut when a fish is detected.

Ambush foraging

used by birds of prey

Pursuit

used by sawbill ducks who chase fish underwater and swallow them headfirst using their serrated bill

Plunge-diving

a foraging technique used by all members of Pelecaniformes whereby they angle their wings and kick their legs back to become very streamlined to dive faster and minimise air resistance.

Hooding/canopy feeding

used by ciconiiformes

Ossuaries

a specialist rocky ledge where birds drop the skeleton of an animal from a great height to shatter the bones into fragments for foraging.

Larders

trees that contain holes drilled by woodpeckers to store a substantial food supply