Adaptations - Beaks, Feet, and Feathers

Focus: Birds' exceptional adaptations enable them to fly, keep warm, and procure food.

Puppets (Cappy Chickadee, Marsha Mouse, Mama Chickadee, Duck, Cardinal)

Materials Checklist
Focus on Feathers (feathers, hand lenses, chalkboard or large paper and markers)
Puppet Show (puppets, script, small green leaves for duck's beak, pictures of different bird adaptations)
Mix and Match (slide show, projector, screen, or pictures of various birds and bird foods)
Pick a Beak (utensils and tools: forks, spoons, tweezers, pliers, skewers, tongs, straws, nutpicks, nutcrackers, foods in various containers)
Make a Bird (bird adaptation cards, scissors, tape, string, construction paper, large sheets of newsprint, large paper grocery bags, crayons, markers, generic bird template if preferred)
Feather Features (5/6 ELF) (paper, pencils, colored pencils, erasers, hand lenses, feathers)

Supplementary Reference Materials (Bird Skeleton, Slide Show Scripts: Grades K-2, Grades 3-6, Who Eats What Chart, From Feathers to Flight, Bird Search Card, Generic Bird Outline, You Can Tell What They Eat take-home page, Bird Adaptation cards, 5/6 ELF activity: Feather Features)

Additional Reading/Resources
Raptors: Birds of Prey, by John Hendrickson, Chronicle Books, 1992.
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, by David Sibley, Alfred A. Knopf, New york, 2001.
Avian Sense of Smell website.
VINS Outreach program on Raptors. (ELF schools get a 30% discount!)

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Beaks, Feet and Feathers
* Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching suggestions

You might want to show snippets of the Eyewitness video: Birds.

With older children, consider starting this workshop by giving each child a feather to draw in detail. Then you can talk about the parts and label the drawings. Show some examples of feather drawings from naturalist journals for inspiration!

It is fun to bring in a live domestic bird: parakeet, chicken, duck.

Focus on Feathers
Have children look at both sides of the feather. Is there a difference in color or shape of its surface? What do they notice about the parts of the feather? Is one side of the web larger than the other side? If so, it is a flight feather, and the leading edge is narrower, which can help you determine which wing the feather is from.

Mix and Match
For K-2 students, glue each bird picture and matching food picture on one piece of paper and then cut into 2 puzzle pieces. Give each student a puzzle piece and ask them to find their matching partner. Once matched, partners should decide what sort of adaptations the bird has that make it possible to eat the food. Could it eat other types of food?
Share pictures in large group. Do some of the birds in the group eat the same kind of foods?

If you are in a city environment, be sure to include pictures of the beaks of common city birds. (Possible examples: pigeons, crows, woodpeckers, jays, sparrows, etc.) What foods are the beaks/bills designed for? Are the birds eating the foods they might eat in nature?

Pick a Beak
You may wish to bring in assorted tools/kitchen gadgets in a toolbox to get across the idea that beaks are tools for survival.

One group did this as a team relay activity. Kids were divided into two flocks, and each flock was clustered around a table decorated to look like a nest with a beaker on it. One bird from each flock flew to the food table, selected a beak (utensil), grabbed a beak full of food, returned to the nest and dropped the food in the beaker. He then handed the utensil to a flockmate who flew to the food table, exchanged beaks, and made a different food selection. No “beak” was used more than once. Relay continued until one flock's beaker was filled to the brim.

Include a magazine photo of the bird food that each food represents. e.g. photo of earthworm with cooked spaghetti. You might also include a photo of the type of bird beak that each tool represents.

After they complete this activity, give each student a round toothpick and pass around assorted snack foods for all to poke and eat.

Have each person select one utensil. Think about which food it is best suited for. What other foods might it procure? Then, in turn, each person picks up its selected food and replaces it. Was any food unchosen? Which utensil could have picked it up? Are some utensils capable of getting many kinds of food? (like bluejays or starlings or gulls) Can any utensil pick up a food that none other can pick up? Why might this be an advantage? A disadvantage?

Stations
If you are doing Focus on Feathers, Pick a Beak, and Mix & Match in stations, make up instruction cards to go at each station. Before splitting up to do the station activities, explain all 3 to the entire group.

Make a Bird
Older students love this small group construction activity. Younger students can use the paper bird template to draw the adaptation described.

You could have 2 piles of cards, one that lists different types of beaks and their uses, the second pile lists different types of feet. Provide cardstock paper bird bodies, construction paper, straws, tape, pipe cleaners (for legs), feathers and clay. Children select a card from each pile and then must design a new bird. Use clay to make feet to stand the bird up.

For the youngest children, draw different beaks, feet and wings on the generic bird template. Kids then glue feathers for the tails to make the mixed-up bird complete.

Extensions
If doing Bird Search outside, you might want children to make toilet paper binoculars ahead of time.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas

• All birds and only birds have feathers.
• Different adaptations allow birds to live in various habitats and feed on a variety of food sources.
• Bird beaks are adapted for obtaining specific kinds of food in specific ways.
• Bird “feet” are adapted for various lifestyles.
• Wings and tail are adapted to help birds feed and nest in specific habitats.
• Most birds' eyes are adapted to provide keen vision and to help them hunt prey or avoid predators.

Vocabulary: adaptation, feather, contour feather, flight feather, down, vane, barbs, barbules, shaft, probing, bird feet, beak/bill, raptor, talons, predator, prey, preening, molting (definitions)

Skills

• Observing details of feather structure using a hand lens
• Comparing and contrasting different types of bird beaks, feet, and feathers to understand various bird adaptations and ways they help birds succeed.
• Using utensils and tools to simulate kinds of beaks that serve a bird best to obtain different types of food
• Creating a bird model using scissors, tape, paper and markers that has adaptations that will make it successful in meeting its needs.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30, S38) Birds are living animals that need food, water, and air to survive. A bird uses its eyes, beak, and feet to find, collect and eat food. Feathers cover a bird's body and wings and help it to fly.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S38) Birds are in a group of animals that have feathers covering their body. Birds' feathers and other body parts, including the beak and feet, enable them to get food and water that is needed for survival in the places they live.

Grades 3-4 (S30, S38) Birds have physical and behavioral characteristics that enable them to obtain food, find a mate, build a nest, raise young, and protect themselves in the places that they live.

Grades 5-6 (S30, S38) Feathers of different kinds of birds share similarities in structure, but may vary widely in shape, size and coloration. Structural features of feathers are related to their location on the bird's body and how they function. Birds have physical and behavioral characteristics that enable them to survive and reproduce.

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