1. May the Best Beak Win... Bird Beak Adaptations
Objective: To observe how the shape of a bird’s beak determines what it eats
Hypothesis: Which beak do you think will be best suited for each food type?
Background Information: Birds are a varied species of animal. They can have brightly colored feathers or be camouflaged within their environment. Their feet can be webbed for swimming, have talons for shredding, or adapted for sitting on limbs. Their beaks can also tell a lot about the types of food that the bird can eat. This lab demonstrates how the shape of a bird’s beak decides what food within the environment is suitable for consumption.
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2. Describe at least three adaptations that an owl has:
Before You Begin:
What is an adaptation?
A trait that allows an organism to successfully survive in its environment
Describe at least three adaptations that an owl has:
Large forward facing eyes for hunting. Light sensitive rods give them good night vision
Fringed flight feathers muffle sound for silent flight
Wide range of neck motion for following prey
Sharp talons for catching prey
Sharp hooked beak for tearing and shredding flesh
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3. May the Best Beak Win... Bird Beak Adaptations
What You Do:
Select one beak from the objects provided by your teacher
Get one plastic cup filled with “food” and empty it out slowly in front of you on a paper plate (your “habitat”). There are 20 food items in each cup. The empty cup now represents your “stomach.”
Hold your stomach in one hand and your beak in the other.
When your teacher tells you, use your beak to pick up the food from your habitat and place them in your stomach. You will have 30 seconds to get as many food items as possible.
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4. May the Best Beak Win... Bird Beak Adaptations
What You Do: (continued…)
When your teacher says “Stop,” count the remaining food on the plate and subtract that number from 20 to obtain the number of food items that were eaten. Record that number in your “Bird beak data table” under the correct beak in your handout.
After round 1, rotate the food source but keep your beak.
Continue to do this until you have eaten each type of food source with your current beak.
Swap beaks for a different beak type and repeat steps 1-7 until you have used all beaks.
When complete, you should have eaten all types of food with each type of beak.
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5. What Happened? The Results:
In nature, how are birds’ beaks adapted to their environment?
The shape of their beak determines the type of food that they eat; if that food is available in the environment, then the bird may survive
Which beak was the most successful for eating all items?
Let’s Discuss!
How can a large variety of birds eat and live in the same area of one another without starving?
They are all adapted to different food sources and so they don’t necessarily compete for the same resources
What do you think would happen if a bird’s beak were adapted to a certain food and that food was unavailable?
The bird population may decline
They may find another similar food
They may move to an area where their primary food
is more abundant
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6. What did YOU find? What Happened? The Results: (continued…)
Was your hypothesis correct? Draw a LINE to match each bird beak to the food type is was best suited to eat:
FLATBILL (CLOTHESPIN) MAGGOTS(RICE/RISOTTO)
TWEEZERBEAK(TWEEZERS) WORMS(RUBBERBANDS)
SPOONBILL (SPOONS) LADYBUGS (BEANS)
NEEDLENOSE (CHOPSTICKS) STICKBUGS (TOOTHPICKS)
How might the feeding strategy change for the birds if the stick bugs contained three times the protein than any of the other food sources?
Birds may be more likely to eat smaller quantities because of the additional nutrition content of the stickbugs. Birds may not need as many of this food source and therefore, their feeding strategy may move to a less aggressive behavior.
What did YOU find?
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7. What Happened? The Results: (continued…)
What would happen if the birds from this activity flew to a remote island in the North Pacific where no other birds lived and the only food source is a small mealworm shaped like rotini pasta? Which birds do you think would be most successful? Which do you think would be least successful?
Let’s Discuss!
You visit that same island on your 50th wedding anniversary. What do you think the bird populations will look like?
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8. Use your knowledge of bird beaks from today to draw in the type of beak you think each bird would have on your sheet.
Did you draw them right?
Eagle Parrot Duck Flamingo
Ostrich Gull Spoonbill Woodpecker
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9. What Happened? The Results: (continued…)
10. How does this lab provide evidence for the theory of evolution? Use the following terms in your explanation: ADAPTATION, EVOLUTION, NATURAL SELECTION, MUTATION, TRAIT, OFFSPRING
An adaptation is a mutation that helps an organism to survive in its environment and therefore reproduce more often and have the best chance of passing on their favorable traits to their offspring. In this lab, those birds with the beaks best suited for the food source available in the environment will survive and have the opportunity to pass on their traits. They will be “selected for” (natural selection) while birds without the most favorable traits will be “selected against” and will most likely not survive. Evolution occurs as those birds with the mutations that are favorable are chosen while those without them die out.
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