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Birds
Feathers, Flight & Song
Record holders, adaptations and the dinosaur connection.
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What is the largest living bird species?
Beaks, Diets and Hunting
A bird's bill is a tool with one job, and knowing the job usually tells you the shape before you see it.
About this topic
Birds gave up teeth a long time ago, and everything about how they eat follows from that. Food has to be caught, killed and swallowed by a horny bill, then processed by a muscular gizzard that does the grinding a jaw would otherwise do. Because the bill has to do so much, it is one of the most strongly shaped parts of a bird, and the shapes are legible: a chisel for wood, a hook for tearing, a filter for water, a spatula for sweeping mud. Some of the specialisations go further than shape. A vulture's defence against rotten meat is chemical rather than mechanical. An owl's advantage in the dark is partly in the fringe of its wing feathers and partly in the placement of its ears. A woodpecker's tongue is long enough to wrap around the back of its own skull. The questions here work through ten of these arrangements and what each one is for.
Questions & answers
Beaks, Diets and Hunting: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1A flamingo feeds by doing what?
- A Probing deep into mud for buried worms
- B Holding its head upside down and filtering small organisms from the water Correct
- C Spearing fish in the shallows of a lagoon
- D Scraping algae from submerged rocks with its bill
Answer: B. Holding its head upside down and filtering small organisms from the water
Why: Its pink colour comes from carotenoid pigments in the crustaceans and algae it strains out, and captive birds fade if those are missing from the diet.
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2The crossed mandibles of a crossbill are used for what?
- A Prising apart the scales of conifer cones to reach the seeds Correct
- B Cracking open the shells of snails
- C Tearing strips of meat from carcasses
- D Levering bark away from tree trunks
Answer: A. Prising apart the scales of conifer cones to reach the seeds
Why: Individual birds are crossed left or right. Because cone crops fail unpredictably, the species wanders in search of food rather than migrating on a fixed schedule.
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3An oystercatcher uses its heavy orange bill mainly for what?
- A Filtering plankton from the surf
- B Digging nesting burrows in soft sand
- C Cutting through tough coastal seaweed
- D Opening or hammering apart shellfish on the shore Correct
Answer: D. Opening or hammering apart shellfish on the shore
Why: Individuals specialise, some stabbing between the two valves and others hammering the shell, and the bill tip wears to a different shape depending on the method.
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4Which feature of an owl's wing feathers helps it hunt in near darkness?
- A Hollow shafts that make the wing unusually light
- B A waxy layer that keeps the feathers rigid in cold air
- C A comb-like fringe on the leading edge that muffles the sound of flight Correct
- D A coating that reflects infrared light back to the eye
Answer: C. A comb-like fringe on the leading edge that muffles the sound of flight
Why: Flying quietly lets the owl hear its prey as well as go unheard, and ear openings set at different heights let it place a sound vertically as well as horizontally.
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5What is a pelican's throat pouch used for?
- A Amplifying the bird's call across open water
- B Scooping up fish and draining the water off before swallowing Correct
- C Storing several days' worth of food
- D Carrying drinking water back to the chicks
Answer: B. Scooping up fish and draining the water off before swallowing
Why: The pouch holds several times as much as the stomach, and the bird has to tip its bill downward to drain it before anything can be swallowed.
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6Vultures are protected from the bacteria in rotting meat chiefly by what?
- A Exceptionally strong stomach acid Correct
- B A thick lining of feathers inside the throat
- C An unusually high body temperature
- D Enzymes secreted onto the carcass before feeding
Answer: A. Exceptionally strong stomach acid
Why: Their gut chemistry destroys agents such as anthrax and botulism toxin. The bare head, usually explained as a hygiene measure, also helps them shed heat.
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7A spoonbill feeds in which way?
- A Shovelling mud out onto the bank to expose prey
- B Holding the bill open to trap insects in flight
- C Hammering into rotten wood to reach grubs
- D Sweeping its flattened bill side to side through shallow water and snapping shut on contact Correct
Answer: D. Sweeping its flattened bill side to side through shallow water and snapping shut on contact
Why: The closing reflex takes a fraction of a second, which lets the bird feed effectively in water far too murky to see through.
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8Woodpeckers avoid injury while hammering into wood largely because of what?
- A A habit of striking only soft, already rotted timber
- B Closing the eyes to reduce pressure inside the head
- C A skull and beak built to spread and absorb the force of each blow Correct
- D An unusually thick pad of fat surrounding the brain
Answer: C. A skull and beak built to spread and absorb the force of each blow
Why: The tongue is the other remarkable part: it wraps right around the back of the skull and can extend well beyond the bill tip to hook grubs out of tunnels.
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9Which birds swallow small stones to help grind up their food?
- A Aerial insect-eaters such as swifts
- B Seed-eaters such as pigeons and gamebirds Correct
- C Fish-eating divers such as loons
- D Nectar feeders such as sunbirds
Answer: B. Seed-eaters such as pigeons and gamebirds
Why: With no teeth, the muscular gizzard does the chewing. Some fossil dinosaurs are found with similar sets of smoothed stones inside the body cavity.
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10A shrike is known for which unusual feeding habit?
- A Impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire to store and dismember it Correct
- B Dropping bait onto water to draw fish within reach
- C Following columns of army ants to catch fleeing insects
- D Diving from a great height to strike prey underwater
Answer: A. Impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire to store and dismember it
Why: The larder doubles as a display to females, and because the bird lacks a raptor's powerful talons the spike does the work of a second foot.
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