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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. © Getting Nerdy, LLC

Before You Begin: 1. What is an adaptation? A trait that allows an organism to successfully survive in its environment 2. Describe at least three adaptations that an owl has: Fringed flight feathers muffle sound for silent flight Large forward facing eyes for hunting. Light sensitive rods give them good night vision Wide range of neck motion for following prey Sharp talons for catching prey © Getting Nerdy, LLC Sharp hooked beak for tearing and shredding flesh

May the Best Beak Win. . . Bird Beak Adaptations What You Do: 1. Select one beak from the objects provided by your teacher 2. 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. ” 3. Hold your stomach in one hand your beak in the other. 4. 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. © Getting Nerdy, LLC

May the Best Beak Win. . . Bird Beak Adaptations What You Do: (continued…) 5. 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. 6. After round 1, rotate the food source but keep your beak. 7. Continue to do this until you have eaten each type of food source with your current beak. 8. Swap beaks for a different beak type and repeat steps 1 -7 until you have used all beaks. 9. When complete, you should have eaten all types of food with each type of beak. © Getting Nerdy, LLC

What Happened? The Results: 1. 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 2. Which beak was the most successful for eating all items? Let’s Discuss! 3. 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 4. 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 © Getting Nerdy, LLC