Lecture 6

Feeding
Because birds have a high metabolism and are expending energy at a
very high rate they must consume more food in proportion to their size
than most animals

Birds sit, walk, hop, fly, and dive in search of food

Adaptation for feeding are an obvious feature of birds

Foraging efficiency

Internal food reserves

External food reserves (caching behavior)

 Bill
Structure

Upper mandible

Lower mandible

Rhamphotheca

Jaw muscles
Filter feeding
 Seed cracking

• lower mandible is moved toward the tip of the bill in a

slicing motion.
• When most of the coat has been cracked or removed,
the lower mandible is moved from side to side to remove
the rest of the shell, thus releasing the kernel.
• Some large finches also have raised hard surfaces in
both the upper and lower jaws that function as anvils
whereby large seeds can be held firmly while the lower
mandible slices and cracks the sides of the seed.
• As tricky as nutcracking sounds, most birds accomplish it
rapidly, shelling small seeds in a few seconds and large
finches can crack open and devour a large seed or nut in
less than twenty seconds.
Seed cracking
 Bill Size Variation Exists Among
Geospiza fortis Individuals on Isla
Daphne Major

Map of island
 Simultaneous decline
in finch population
and food suggests
competition among
individuals
Decline in population size

Decrease in seed abundance Increase in seed hardness

End result:
Differential
survival among
individuals with
different size
bills = natural
selection

Likely
Cause: Birds
with large bills
better able to
harvest large
seeds
Flexible beaks
Nectar feeders
 Tongue and Salivary Glands
Tongue
hyoid apparatus

Salivary Glands – 3 major sets

sticky
lubricate
nests
 Esophagus and Crop

Esophagus
-muscular structure lined with mucus glands
-Produces milk in pigeons
-Used in vocalization and displays

Crops
-Expanded esophageal region
Serves the same function as a mammalian
stomach
-Function varies
 Stomach

Stomach
-two chambered (proventriculus & gizzard)
-function of stomach differs among species
-Proventricus is most developed in fish-eating birds and vultures
-Gizzard is functioning similar to mammalian molars
-Gizzard is a large, strong muscular structure used for grinding and
digesting tough food
-Seed eaters have large powerful layers of muscles in the gizzard
-Turkey gizzard can pulverize walnuts and steel
-Grebes swallow feathers to act as a filter in the gizzard
-Gizzard can contain large quantities of stone
-Gizzard can change seasonally (winter seeds to summer insects)
 Intestines

Intestines
-Short in species that eat fruit, meat, and insects
-Long in species that eat seeds, plants, and fish
- Hummingbirds can assimilate 99% of energy
- Hawks assimilate 66-88% of energy
-Spruce Grouse assimilate only 30% of spruce needles
-Many songbirds can not digest sucrose
 Retention time
Fluid retention Particle retention
Species Body mass
time time
Iguana - <48 207
Broad-tailed
3.3 gm 1.2 -
Hummingbird1
Rock Ptarmigan 460 gm 9.9 1.9
Sooty Albatross 2.5 kg 6.3 15
Rockhopper Penguin 2.5 kg 3.8 17
Emu 38 kg 3.9 4.7
rabbit 2.1kg 39 27
pig 176 kg 39 48
 Caeca
• Best developed in some waterfowl, gallinaceous birds
(like chickens & grouse), and ostriches

• aid in the digestion of plant material (bacteria in the

caeca help enzymatically digest the material)

• Almost always found in flightless or ground-dwelling

species
 Cloaca
-receives waste from the large intestine, materials from the urinary, and
reproductive systems

Bursa of Fabricius is located on the dorsal wall. The bursa is most prominent in
young birds and serves as the area where B-lymphocytes (the white blood cells
that produce antibodies) are generated (T-lymphocytes are generated in the
Thymus). Once produced, the B-lymphocytes migrate to lymphoid tissue in other
parts of the body & the bursa of Fabricius atrophies
 Wax as food

Wax
-Used by honeyguides, seabirds, yellow-rumped warblers
-Honeyguides are known to eat candles and have been used
by people to find beehives
-Yellow-rumped warblers and Tree Swallows are able to
survive winter by eating berries and digesting the wax in the
berries
 Tool Use
Tool use
-Some species of birds use tools in feeding
Woodpecker finch
Egyptian Vultures
Green Herons
Gulls

Innovation
-Great Tits learned to rip open milk caps and drink the cream
-Galapagos finches have learned to push over stones
- Galapagos finches have learned to pierce nestling seabirds for their
blood
-Crows in Champaign know the football schedule
 Searching Behavior
Searching Behavior
- Birds often forage in a manner to optimize intake and minimize
energetic costs
-Birds also tend to distribute themselves in a way that reduces
competition
 Foraging Strategies
Learning to hunt
- Hawks
-Oystercatchers
-Swallows
-Tropical passerines
-Terns

Learning what is nutritious

-Many birds are not adventurous in what they eat (like familiar
foods)
-Create a search imagine
-Forage differently in different habitats
 Energetics of Foraging
Foraging time
-Foraging time per day is a function of energy intake
Predation vs. activity
-Kinglets in winter must forage 90% of the day and find an insect
every 2 seconds

Fat Reserves
-Most birds maintain minimal fat reserves
Warblers can go 1 day
Kestrels can go 5 days
Emperor Penguin can go 90-120 days
Swift nestlings can go 10 days (torpor)
 Food Caches
Hoarding food for future use is one way to prepare for food shortages
Several species are known to do this
Woodpeckers, Jays, Hawks, Shrikes, Owls, Parids

We will talk about spatial memory of birds next lecture

Clarks Nutcracker
Pinyon Jays