Marine Birds Kingdom: Animalia Animalia Phylum: Chordata Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Vertebrata Class: Aves

 Birds are vertebrates with feathers, modified for flight and for active metabolism. Birds are a monophyletic lineage, evolved once from a common ancestor, and all birds are related through that common origin. There are a few kinds of birds that don't fly, but their ancestors did, and these birds have secondarily lost the ability to fly. Modern birds have traits related to hot metabolism, and to flight:

 horny beak, no teeth  large muscular stomach  feathers  large yolked, hard-shelled eggs. The parent bird provides extensive care of the young until it is grown, or gets some other bird to look after the young.  strong skeleton

 Marine birds do not get wet when they enter the water.  preening gland secretes waxes and fats that a bird spreads throughout its feathers

 Birds also have powder downs, special feathers made of keratin that break into small dust-like pieces.  This dust is spread throughout the feathers, aids in waterproofing the bird

 Many marine birds have salt glands.  Because ocean-bound birds often have no choice but to drink salt water . The majority of the fresh water that marine birds need comes from their prey.

 Differences in bill dimensions influence the rate at which food can be eaten.

Pelican  pouch between the branches of the lower mandible that they use to capture fish  Pelicans dive and scoop fish up in their pouched bills and drain the water before swallowing their catch.

Cormorants  pursue fish under water, seizing their prey with their hooked bills

Anhingas  spear their fish—snake bird

Frigate birds  steal food from other fish-eating birds.

Flamingos  have beak lamellae that filter small organisms out of the water. They can eat small invertebrates and even blue green algae  What else does this?

Black skimmers  skim the surface of the water to catch fish.

Penguins  dive to great depths to get their meals

terns and gulls  will drop from a vantage point in the sky to catch a fish near the ocean’s surface.

Tube nosed birds  have great noses for smelling food

Albatross

Shearwaters

petrels

Leg and feet types  There are several lengths of legs and types of feet found on sea birds. Those birds that spend most of their time on the ocean usually have short, stocky legs and palmate or totipalmate feet (partially webbed or totally webbed). The short legs work well as "oars" and the webbed feet work great as the paddle at the end of the oar.

 Birds that do a lot of swimming have counter current exchange in their feet and legs. Because ocean water can be very cold and even damaging after extended exposure, marine birds need to compensate for the fact that a lot of heat is lost through their feet to the surrounding water. Birds use counter current exchange to warm the cold blood returning from the feet back up.

 marinebirds, play an essential, and often overlooked role in the ecosystem. They help to keep the ecosystem at a natural equilibrium state by helping to consume the large population of fish in the oceans and lakes, are able to assist in the dispersal of seeds to new environments,

examples of humans disturbing their environment  loss of habitat because of human invasion  by-catch  oil spills  disturbed migration patterns  loss of predatory instincts loss of predatory instincts loss of predatory instincts

Bycatch

Oil spills