Grade 1—WPS Spring Field Investigation Background Science Investigation Question – Is your schoolyard a good habitat for birds? Objectives:

• Students will be able to identify nesting and feeding areas used by birds in the schoolyard. • Students will be able to discuss general characteristics of birds including adaptations, life cycles,

behaviors, and signs of birdlife. • Students will be able to create bird food webs from tracks and signs in their schoolyard.

Classroom Connection: The Bird Unit is part of the1st grade science curriculum throughout the year. The unit focuses on body structure – feet, beaks, feathers, habitat, migration, and birds of prey. Nesting and Feeding

Habitat • A good habitat has food, water, shelter and space • A habitat is where organisms (plants and animals) live • Most plants and animal are adapted to survive in a specific habitat, where conditions are

suited to them. Feeding

• Except for the birds of prey (hooked beak, talons, hunts prey) most of our native and migratory birds are seed or invertebrate eaters.

• They differ mostly in the types of seeds or invertebrates, ex worms or insects, they eat and whether they feed on the ground, in weeds or shrubs, or the various levels of trees.

• Birds require a tremendous amount of energy and often feed several times throughout the day. For many songbirds, ‘eating like a bird’ would actually mean eating your own body weight or more every day!

• Most birds need cover nearby when they are feeding Nesting

• Birds build nests for egg laying and raising young. Only the incubating parent actually sits in the nest

• Once the young have fledged, the nest is no longer used • Some bird species will reuse a nest from year to year. They usually add to it and the nests

grow – Red-tailed Hawk, Eastern Phoebe • Cavity nesters use a hole or box – Tree Swallow, owls • Many bird species return to the area they hatched and build a new nest near-by –

Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Bluebird • Nests are used only for reproduction – birds do not ‘live’ in nests

Characteristics of Birds Adaptations (physical characteristics that help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes, withstand weather, and attract mates)

• Birds are warm-blooded vertebrates • Beak – no teeth; bills are sometimes highly modified for specific food source

o Chiseling beak for digging in trees for insects – woodpeckers, swallows o Cracking beak for eating seeds – cardinals, finches o Tearing beak for eating prey – hawks, eagles, owls o Spearing Beak for stabbing prey – herons, egrets o Straining beak for filtering food from water – ducks, geese, flamingo o Slurping beak for sucking up nectar – hummingbirds o Spooning beak for scooping food out of the water- spoonbills

• Feathers –

o Down – fluffy, for warmth o Body – long, smooth, stiff, give bird its shape and color

• Hollow bones – reduced weight for flying • Most widely distributed class of vertebrates; ~10,000 species world-wide

Life Cycle • All birds hatch from shelled eggs • Migration – not all birds migrate

o Migration is energy expensive and risky o Migration is driven mostly by food needs not by temperature

• Nesting o Usually males establish territories and females get to choose o Timing often connected to food availability for feeding hatchlings o Most songbird incubation is 2-3 weeks o Hatchlings fledge in 12-18 days

• Birds reach adult size by the time they fledge. • Most species have somewhat different plumage in the 1st year. Eagles, and some other

larger species, may take several years to reach full adult plumage. • Many male songbirds have two different plumages

o Normal – most of the year o Breeding – brighter, more colorful for mating, territoriality, etc.

• Birds of Prey – most males and females have the same plumage; females are larger

Food Web Energy Flow

• Energy comes from the sun • Energy can only be captured by plants – Producers • Animals must eat to obtain energy – Consumers

o Primary consumers – plant eaters o Secondary consumers – eat the primary consumers

• Energy cannot be recycled Nutrient Flow

• Plants absorb nutrients from the soil and air • Animals get their nutrients by consuming plants or other animals

o Herbivores – eat only plants o Carnivores – eat only meat o Omnivores – eat plants and meat

• Nutrients are recycled through decomposition Sample Food Web – arrows indicate direction of energy flow Sunlight Oak Tree Inch Worm Chickadee Hawk

DrumlinFarmWildlifeSanctuary

Birds

Chickadee Cardinal Pigeon

House Sparrow Starling Robin

Crow Red-tailed Hawk Turkey Vulture Beaks

Cracking Chiseling Slurping Straining

Spooning Stabbing Tearing Completed Food Web – arrows indicate direction of energy flow

Sun Sharp-shinned Hawk

Chickadee Inchworm Oak Tree

DrumlinFarmWildlifeSanctuary