Can You Predict a Bird's Lifestyle Based on Its Feet?

Abstract

Animals survive in all sorts of extreme environments, whether it's a polar bear out and about when its -40°F, a desert iguana trying to find food as the temperature rises to 110°F, or a deep sea anglerfish living 3281 feet down into the sea. How do they do it? The answer is adaptations! Their bodies have special features that allow them to live in those environments. You might not be able to dive down 3281 feet to observe the deep sea anglerfish, but in this science fair project you can discover what the adaptations of birds in your own backyard tell you about their lifestyles.

Objective

In this science fair project, investigate how well a bird's foot type reflects its lifestyle.

Credits

Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies

This science fair project was based on this DragonflyTV episode:

• TPT. (2006). California Fish by Milan and Harison. DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/californiafish.html

Last edit date: 2012-12-07

Introduction

If you were an animal with a thick layer of fat under your skin and a heavy coat of fur (like a polar bear) would you live in a tropical forest? No way! You'd be way too hot! But if you lived in the cold of the Arctic, these physical features would be necessary to keep you warm. Physical features that help animals survive in their surroundings are called adaptations. All creatures have adaptations. Some adaptations help animals deal with the climate, like the polar bear example above. Other adaptations help animals move better in their environment, blend in with their surroundings so that they don't get eaten by predators, or help them successfully gather dinner.

Click here to watch a video of this investigation, produced by DragonflyTV and presented by pbskidsgo.org

In this DragonflyTV video, while at the Aquarium of the Pacific, Milan and Harison noticed that fish have different types of mouths. Some fish have mouths that face down, others have mouths that point up, and still others have mouths that face forward. Check out this DragonflyTV video to see how Milan and Harison designed an experiment to find out if the different types of mouths are adaptations that determine how and what certain fish eat. What do you think their results are? Watch the video and find out!

Birds are animals with a lot of specific and useful adaptations. One major adaptation is the shape of their feet. Have you ever looked at a bird's feet and noticed how different they are from other types of birds' feet? For example, chickens and ducks are both birds, but they have very differently shaped feet! Chicken feet have long skinny toes with strong, sharp nails to scratch at the ground and find insects to eat, while ducks have webbed feet to help them paddle in the water. In Figure 1, below, you can see six different types of birds' feet. Each type of foot is adapted for a different task.

Figure 1. The table above illustrates six different types of birds' feet and how these adaptations help the bird survive (chart adapted from the Norman Bird Sanctuary, 2000).

To conduct your experiment, you'll need to find a place where you can observe birds, mark down what type of feet each bird has, predict what kind of lifestyle the birds have based on their foot type, and then do a little research about the birds to see if you were right. Have fun bird watching!

Terms and Concepts

• Adaptation
• Climate
• Environment
• Surroundings
• Predator
• Observe
• Species
• Prey
• Talons
• Habitat

Questions

• What kind of habitats can you find birds in?
• What types of food do birds eat? How do they find their food?
• What species of birds live in your area?

Bibliography

This science fair project was based on this DragonflyTV episode:

• TPT. (2006). California Fish by Milan and Harison. DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/californiafish.html

These websites are good resources for identifying birds and researching their lifestyles:

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2007). All About Birds: How to ID Birds. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/birding123/identify/
• BioDiversity Institute. (2002). Internet Field Guide to Birds. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://www.bdi.org/Birdkey/BirdFrameset.cfm
• e-Nature.com. (2007). Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/intermediate.asp?curGroupID=1

Materials and Equipment

• Places to observe birds (read the Experimental Procedure for details)
• Binoculars, inexpensive ones are fine; can be bought at most sporting goods stores
• Optional: Bird field guide or other books about how to identify birds in your area; can be borrowed from local library or purchased at a bookstore
• Lab notebook
• Graph paper

Experimental Procedure

1. To start this science fair project, you'll need to find places where you can observe birds. Here are several suggestions:
   1. Your backyard, especially if you have a bird feeder or a birdbath there
   2. A park
   3. A field
   4. A forest
   5. Someplace with water, like a river, pond, lake, or marsh
   6. The beach
   7. An aviary at a zoo
   8. A pet store
2. Go to one of the bird-observation places you've decided on and observe the birds there. Be sure to have an adult go with you.
3. Identify the different species of birds you see.
   1. If you are at a zoo, pet store, or other place where the species of birds around you are labeled, this will be easy.
   2. If you are outdoors, use a field guide with pictures and descriptions of the birds to help you identify what species of birds you see. You may want to ask an adult for help looking up the different birds.
4. Write down the species of birds you see in a data table, like the one below, in your lab notebook.
5. Look at the feet of each species of bird. Write down in your data table which type of feet each species of bird has. Use Figure 1, in the Introduction, as a reference for the different types of bird feet.
   1. You may need to use a pair of binoculars to clearly see the birds' feet.
6. Make observations for at least 10 species of birds. You may need to go to more than one bird-observation location to collect all your data.
7. Based on the type of feet each bird has, predict what kind of lifestyle you think that type of bird has. Write down your predictions in your lab notebook.
   1. Where does it spend its time? Is it usually perched in a tree, climbing trees, on the ground, or swimming in the water?
   2. Can you tell how it gets its food? Does it grasp prey (like mice or fish) with its talons, or maybe scratch for insects and worms in the soil?
8. Research each species of bird to find out where it spends its time and what it eats.
   1. Books about birds, and bird identification websites, like the ones in the bibliography, are good sources for researching.
   2. Record your results in the data table in your lab notebook.

   Species	Type of Feet	Predicted Lifestyle		Researched Lifestyle
   		Where does the bird spend its time?	How does the bird get its food?	Where does the bird spend its time?	How does the bird get its food?

9. Make two pie charts representing your data.
   1. One pie chart should show the percentage of the cases you correctly predicted where the bird spends its time.
   2. The second pie chart should show the percentage of the cases you correctly predicted how the bird gets its food.
   3. You can make the pie charts by hand or use a website like Create a Graph to make them on the computer and print them.
10. Based on your charts, how accurate an indicator was each bird's foot type for the kind of lifestyle it leads? Were the foot adaptations better at predicting where the birds spent time, or better at predicting what they ate?

Variations

• Are bird beaks also adaptations? Do birds with different types of beaks eat different things? Design an experiment to find out.
• Do birds in the same habitat have similar types of feet? How about birds in different habitats? Try picking two diverse habitats, like the beach and a forest.
• Different species of birds have different social habits. Some types of birds live in flocks, while others are loners or live in small family groups. Does the social nature of the birds have anything to do with how many of a certain type of species you see in a habitat? Design an experiment to find out.

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