WFC 111 Midterm 2

24 NA Bird Orders with key traits (morph, behavior, ecology, habitat) within Neognathae superorder

Order Galliformes

Chickens and upland fowl
Gallus = poultry

Range: worldwide
Morphology: fowl-like terrestrial, short, rounded wings, short decurved beak with upper overlapping lower mandible, strong legs / feet / claws
Habitat: grassland, scrub, forest
Characteristics: large clutch with precocial chicks (eyes open, covered in down, moving), polygyny and lekking

Order Anseriformes

Waterfowl and Screamers
Anser = goose

Range: worldwide
Morphology: med - large swimming waterbirds with broad, flattened, lamellate bills tipped by dertrum and palmate feet. AKA bills have a “nail” tip, ridges along edge, and their feet have 3 front toes that are fully webbed.
Habitat: aquatic, coastal, freshwater
Characteristics: Females incubate, precocial chicks, brood parasitism!

Order Caprimulgiformes

Nightjars and Allies
Caprimulgus = milker of goats. myth that nightjars would steal milk from goats at night…

Range: worldwide
Morphology: nocturnal and large headed with a wide gaped, short, bristled bill. Insect eaters. Cryptically colored plumage.
Habitat: Varied - open forest, rainforest, brush, open woodland
Characteristics: 1-2 eggs on ground in simple nests, semi altricial chicks

Order Apodiformes

Swifts and Hummingbirds
Apodos = without feet

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Highly aerial! Long wings. Either bills with broad gape (swifts) or long and slender (hummingbirds). Swifts are dull, aerial, insectivores. Hummingbirds are nectarivores with colorful, iridescent males.
Habitat: most. open woodland
Characteristics: hummingbirds lay 2 eggs and F are parental. Swifts are monogamous and biparental

Order Culculiformes

Cuckoos
Cuculus = cuckoo

Range: worldwide
Morphology: zygodactyl feet (2 front and 2 back), long graduated tail, slender med - large birds, arboreal or terrestrial
Habitat: variable
Characteristics: obligate brood parasites (many are)

Order Columbiformes

Pigeons and doves
Columba = pigeon, dove

Range: worldwide
Morphology: short neck and small head, compact with large breast. Bill short with a fleshy cere. Dense and loose plumage
Habitat: woodlands or arid
Characteristics: biparental, chicks fed PIGEON MILK produced in the crop

Order Gruiformes

Cranes, rails, and allies
Grus = crane

Range: worldwide
Morphology: terrestrial and aquatic birds, round wings, toes unwebbed, semipalmate, or lobate
Habitat: forests, grasslands, wetlands
Characteristics: shy and retiring, secretive marsh birds. mainly monogomous but some are polyandrous (F competing for M)

Order Gaviiformes

Loons
Gavia = bird, seagull

Range: holarctic
Morphology: thick neck, strong pointed bill, lores to nostrils feathered, dense plumage, palmate feet, far back feet
Habitat: water
Characteristics: excellent divers, monogamous, biparental care, carry young on back, lay 2 eggs

Order Sphenisciformes

Penguins
Spheniskos = little wedge

Range: southern hemisphere
Morphology: Flightless diving birds using paddle-like wings, wing bones fused for diving, developed keel despite flightless, palmate feet set back on body, dense plumage
Habitat: marine
Characteristics: biparental care, most lay single egg, colonial nesters

Order Procellariiformes

Tube-nosed Swimmers
Procella = storm

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Pelagic, long-winged seabirds come to land to nest, excellent soarers, hooked bill with horny plates, tubular nostrils, palmate feet with reduced/absent hallux
Habitat: open ocean
Characteristics: excellent sense of smell to find prey, excrete salt via salt gland and can drink saltwater

Order Ciconiiformes

Storks
Ciconia = Stork

Range: worldwide
Morphology: large wading birds with massive bills, bare face/head/neck, and white with black remiges
Habitat: shores, marshes, wetlands
Characteristics: Lack of syrinx so they communicate by clattering bills

Order Suliformes

Boobies, Frigatebirds, Cormorants

Range: worldwide
Morphology: medium - large with bare distensible gular pouch, totipalmate feet
Habitat: marine or freshwater
Characteristics: capture fish by aerial diving or swimming, kleptoparasite, nest in colonies

Order Pelecaniformes

Pelicans, Herons, and allies
Pelecanus = pelican

Range: worldwide oceans and lakes
Morphology: large, fish eating, with long pointed / hooked bill. Have totipalmate feet (webs connect ALL 4 toes), herons have long thin toes and long s shaped necks
Habitat: Marine or freshwater
Characteristics: colonial breeders, 1-3 eggs with biparental care, altricial young

Order Phoenicopteriformes

Flamingoes
Phonikos = crimson | Pteri = wing

Range: pantropical
Morphology: large and long legged, necked, and large winged. Thick decurved lamellate bill. Palmate feet. Pink.
Habitat: saline, alkali lakes and lagoon
Characteristics: monogamous with biparental care, 1 egg, breeding in dense synchronized colonies. Pump water through lamellae to filter feed. Flamingo fed FLAMINGO MILK by parent's’ esophagus

Order Podicipediformes

Grebes
Podex = rump, Pes = foot

Range: worldwide
Morphology: slender necked diving birds with feet set far back. Lobate. Reduced tail
Habitat: Freshwater lakes and marshes
Characteristics: Synchronized courtship, floating nests, carry chicks on back

Order Charadriiformes

Shorebirds, Gulls, Allies
Kharadrios = birds nesting in river valley

Range: worldwide
Morphology: pointed long wings, waders swimmers and aerial diverts with short tails. Long-legged and long-necked with moderate to long slender bill OR compact with bill laterally compressed, straight or hooked. palmate feet.
Habitat: water

Order Accipitirformes

Hawks, Eagles, and allies
Accipiter = Hawk

Range: worldwide
Morphology: strongly hooked beak with fleshy cere at base of bill, strongly curved raptorial feet
Habitat: variable
Characteristics: nest in trees / cliffs, monogamous with biparental care, semi-precocial chicks

Order Cathartiformes

New World Vulture
Kathartes = cleaner or purifier

Range: North and South America
Morphology: Long broad wings, soaring. Feet are weak and clawed. Bald head
Habitat: Warm, temperate areas
Characteristics: Scavenging with good sense of smell

Order Strigiformes

Owls
Strix = screech owl

Range: worldwide
Morphology: nocturnal, predatory, with large head and round/heart shaped facial disc and large forward facing eyes. Hooked beaks and strong talons, soft plumage for silent flight. Zygodactyl, feathered tarsi on feet. Fleshy cere
Habitat: forest, grassland, tundra
Characteristics: Hunt via sound, round discs concentrate that sound to enhance hearing. Use cavities for nest

Order Coraciiformes

Kingfishers and Allies
Korax = Crow or Raven

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Diverse group with large heads and prominent bills, small syndactyl feet, colorful!
Habitat: Forest, woodland, aquatic and savannah
Characteristics: Cavity nesters, altricial young, biparental incubation and brood care

Order Piciformes

Woodpeckers, Barbets, and Allies
Picus = Woodpecker

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Arboreal, zygodactyl feet, variable bills that are straight and chisel-like, stiffened tail in true woodpeckers
Habitat: arboreal, tropical, subtropical, deciduous forest
Characteristics: cavity nesters, biparental incubation and brood care, altricial young

Order Falconiformes

Falcons and Caracaras
Falco = sickle

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Strongly hooked beaks, tomial tooth on beak used to kill prey, fleshy cere at base of bill, strongly curved claws (raptorial feet)
Habitat: variable
Characteristics: nests in trees or cliffs, monogamous with biparental care, semi-precocial chicks

Order Psittaciformes

Parrots
Psittacus = parrot

Range: pantropical
Morphology: Arboreal, colorful, strongly curved powerful bill with a heavy overlap, strong zygodactyl feet.
Habitat: arboreal
Characteristics: monogamous and biparental, nesting in cavities, extremely intelligent

Order Passeriformes

Perching Birds
Passer = sparrow / small bird

Range: worldwide
Morphology: Huge group of birds! Mostly terrestrial with specialized feet for perching (anisodactyl) with well-developed incumbent hallux, large brains
Habitat: ubiquitous
Characteristics: superb songsters with extreme diversity of mating systems and nesting strategies, altricial young.

What are the 2 major physical principles that allow flight in birds?

Laws of Lift:

Bernoulli’s Law: Static Pressure (Ps) + Dynamic Pressure (Dp) = Constant of Flow. Static is the uniform exertion of force from the atmosphere, dynamic is kinetic energy from motion of air molecules. Basically, as pressure decreases, velocity increases. Static decreases when dynamic increases above page which lifts because the static pressure below is greater than above.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion: Generating power in flight, for every action is an equal opposite reaction (wing strokes deflect air down.

What are the four major forces that affect a flying bird and what contributes to each?

Lift: The upward force allowing subject to get higher in air, air passing and pushing airfoil, AKA laws of lift!
Gravity: Gravity is the force downwards toward earth, opposes lift.
Thrust: As a bird flaps, its wings develop lift, rotated to the flight muscles to provide thrust which counteracts drag. They angle their airfoils
Drag: Induced and Profile. Induced is caused by vortices at wing tips and profile is frictional resistance of wing passing through air. Opposes Thrust.

Dealing with Drag: For profile drag, there is decreased surface area relative to mass. Lift is proportional to wing surface area, however. Tails reduce drag and can create lift by flaring or air braking to slow

What is Vmp and Vmr

Vmp: Minimum Power Speed = minimum power needed to fly where both profile and induced drag are the lowest, conserving energy. Hunting birds
Vmr: Maximum Range Speed = power needed to fly as fast and far as possible and as energetically efficient as possible. Migrating birds.

What is wing loading and aspect ratio, how do different wing shapes affect flight?

Wing Loading: Mass/Area
Low loading is more maneuverable and less power is needed to sustain flight, high loading is larger birds. Lower wing-loading makes better fliers!
Aspect Ratio: Span / Wing chord (chord is width of wing). Long and narrow wings have high aspect ratio, for gliding and soaring flight. Low aspect ratio is for short powerful flight.

What is static and dynamic soaring

Static soaring rides rising warm air for flight, gliding to the next air current, travelling long distances with minimal effort
Dynamic soaring uses wing shear above the water surface to soar and maintain. Gains altitude by flying into shear wind and glides in desired direction, losing altitude, before turning and repeating

What is formation flight?

V formation flight, off center allowing birds further back to benefit from reduced wind resistance and reduced induced drag. Upwash of wingtip air from front bird adds extra lift for bird behind, everyone benefits but the leader.

Name and describe the structure and components of feathers

Rachis: Central Shaft
Calamus: Quill
Rachis and Calamus form central structural support

Pennaceous/Plumaceous Vanes: Pennaceous vanes zipi and Plumaceous don’t
Barbs: Compose the vane and zip together to form a solid surface. Substructures are barbules and barbicels
Barbules: On barbs, going forward or back from the barb (distal or proximal)
Barbicels: Barbicels on Barbules that zip the feathers
Inferior Umbilicus: Hole at bottom of quill