Lab Practical 1: Anseriformes - Caprimulgiformes

# = Male and Female * = Specimen out only once Phalacrocoracidae Laridae Anseriformes Brandt's Cormorant * Black Skimmer Anatidae

American Wigeon Double-crested Cormorant Bonaparte's Gull California Gull Bufflehead Ciconiiformes Forster's Tern Canvasback Ardeidae Heermann's Gull Cinnamon Teal Black-crowned Night-Heron Ring-billed Gull Common Goldeneye Cattle Egret Royal Tern Fulvous Whistling-Duck Great Blue Heron

Gadwall Great Egret Western Gull Green-winged Teal Green Heron Alcidae Common Murre Lesser Scaup Least Bittern Mallard Snowy Egret Columbiformes Columbidae Northern Pintail Falconiformes Band-tailed Pigeon Northern Shoveler Accipitridae Mourning Dove Redhead Cooper's Hawk Rock Pigeon # Ruddy Duck * Golden Eagle Snow Goose Red-shouldered Hawk Cuculiformes # Surf Scoter Red-tailed Hawk Cuculidae Greater Roadrunner Galliformes Sharp-shinned Hawk Phasianidae White-tailed Kite Strigiformes # Ring-necked Pheasant Cathartidae Tytonidae Odontophoridae Turkey Vulture Barn Owl California Quail Falconidae Strigidae Gambel's Quail # American Kestrel Burrowing Owl Mountain Quail Prairie Falcon Great Horned Owl Western Screech-Owl Gaviiformes Gruiformes Gaviidae Rallidae Caprimulgiformes Common Loon American Coot Caprimulgidae Clapper Rail Common Nighthawk Podicipediformes Common Gallinule Podicipedidae Common Poorwill Virginia Rail Clark's Grebe Eared Grebe Charadriiformes Pied-billed Grebe Charadriidae Western Grebe Black-bellied Plover Killdeer Procellariiformes Recurvirostridae Procellariidae American Avocet Northern Fulmar Black-necked Stilt Pelecaniformes Scolopacidae Pelecanidae Greater Yellowlegs * American White Pelican Long-billed Dowitcher * Brown Pelican Marbled Godwit Western Sandpiper ZOO 329L Ornithology Lab – Topography – Lab Practical 1

BILL (BEAK)

Culmen the ridge on top of the upper mandible. It extends from the tip of the bill to where the feathers begin.

Gonys ridge of the lower mandible, analogous to the culmen on the upper mandible.

Tomium (plural: tomia) the cutting edges of the bill. The tomia have edges that may not be straight:

Toothed the upper mandible tomium has a single tooth, as in a falcon.

Serrate saw-like tomia, when the tomia have many teeth; as in a motmot or the Collared Aracari.

Notched a slight nick in the tomia of one or both mandibles, usually near the tip; e.g. a thrush.

Lamellate transverse tooth-like ridges just inside the tomia, as in the Northern Shoveler.

Rictus the fleshy part of the mandibles where they come together at the back, i.e. the “corner of the mouth”. Some birds (e.g. flycatchers) have bristles (stiff feathers) located here, and they’re called rictal bristles.

Nostrils two holes at the base of the upper mandibles. The olfactory lobes of the brain are small in birds, but smell may be an important sense, at least in some species. In some species, the nostrils are feathered.

Cere a fleshy patch at the base of the upper mandible; not always distinct. The nostrils are on the cere in some species. (Pigeon)

Mandibular Ramus when the lower mandible is viewed from below (the ventral view), you can see two prong-like projections of the bill extending to the posterior on each side of the jaw. These projections are the mandibular rami (singular = mandibular ramus). In people, the mandibular ramus is the posterior portion of the jaw that curves up to articulate with the skull. In birds, the rami of the bill do not curve, but extend straight back.

Commissure the line where the tomia come together; i.e. the gape. It used to describe the shape of the bill along its length. Types of commissures include (see illustrations):

Straight just what it means, no curves.

Recurved bill curves upward (dorsally) along its length. (avocet)

Decurved bill curves downward (ventrally). (thrasher)

Bent similar to decurved, but the bill is bent downward at its halfway point. (flamingo)

1 General Bill Shapes - bills may be long or short in relation to the length of the head (i.e. a long bill is longer than the length of the head). In cross section, bill shapes vary widely:

Compressed bill higher than wide. (loon)

Depressed not an emotional state. This refers to a bill that is wider than high. (duck)

Convex similar to depressed, but means that the sides of the bill are pushed outward; also called stout. (tanager) This is hard to see, but try looking directly into the bill of a tanager. It appears to have a slight bulge on the sides.

Terete circular, but not stout, because the bill is narrow. (robin) There is no bulge in the direct view (see convex above).

There are also bill characteristics that represent forms not already mentioned:

Hooked upper mandible longer than the lower mandible, dropping off sharply at the end. (hawk)

Acute tapers to a sharp point. (warbler)

Chisel-like tip of the bill is beveled like a chisel. (woodpecker)

Gibbous a hump occurs at the base of the upper mandible. (see picture of male Black Scoter in the field guide)

Spatulate flattened and wide at the tip. (shoveler)

Crossed the tips of the mandibles are crossed over each other; bill must be hooked on both mandibles to do this. (see picture of the Red Crossbill in the field guide)

Conical like a cone, round in cross-section and tapering gradually toward the tip. (goldfinch)

Nostril Types:

Tubular openings of the nostrils are at the ends of short elongations of the base of the upper mandible. (Northern Fulmar)

Linear opening appears as a slit. (gull)

Round opening is circular. (falcon)

Oval opening is elliptical, not round or linear, but in between. (Cooper's Hawk)

2 Tail Types (according the lengths of the retrices. See Fig. 7 in this handout)

Square all retrices the same length, so the end of the tail is flat. (trogon)

Rounded retrices shorten slightly toward the outside. (jay)

Graduated retrices shorten abruptly from distal to proximal; see the illustration and the Greater Roadrunner specimen.

Pointed (Acute) middle retrices are much longer than the others. (pheasant)

Emarginate retrices increase slightly in length from the middle to the outermost pair. The tail a notched appearance. (Purple Finch)

Forked retrices increase abruptly in length from the middle to the outermost pair. (Forster's Tern)

Wing Types Some features (rounded and pointed) are only recognizable when the wings are extended (see illustrations in field guide)

Spurred a claw-like structure occurs at the bend of the wing; see the Jacana.

Rounded middle primaries are the longest and the remaining are graduated. (see hawks in flight in the field guide)

Pointed the primaries are longest at the end of the wing. (see gulls in flight in the field guide)

FEATHERS AND FEATHER TRACTS (Fig. 8 this handout) Use the feathers and dissecting scope to examine these structures.

Shaft the central tube or 'axis'; consists of two parts:

Calamus the lower part of the shaft without vanes.

Rachis the section of the shaft from which the vanes (see below) arise.

Vanes there are two vanes to a feather, one on each side of the rachis; they are made up of a series of smaller interlocking units called:

Barbs individual structures that arise from the shaft and interlock making up a vane. Separate the barbs in a vane and notice how they are joined. They easily they resume their interlocking by pressing them back together. This is one function of a bird's preening behavior - to rejoin the barbs.

Barbules a barb subunit; each barb is like a small feather with a central shaft and barbules (instead of barbs) arising from it.

Hooklets small hooks usually found on the distal barbules (farthest from the rachis). These hold the barbs together.

3 Fig. 7

4 Fig. 8

Feather Types (see Fig. 8 above)

Contour The typical “bird feather”. There are hooklets present for the entire length of the barbs, so the vanes are rigid and able to displace air, as in the flight feathers. The name contour refers to the fact that these feathers give the body its general outline.

5 Semiplumes small and white, usually hidden beneath the body feathers. A lack of interlocking barbules gives them a downy texture. They are primarily for insulation.

Down like semiplumes in that they lack hooklets and are for insulation. The shaft is shorter than the longest barbs. Very soft feathers.

Filoplumes long shaft with only a few barbs at the tip of the rachis. Usually accompany other feathers and may be sensory in function.

Bristles usually fringe the rictus in flycatchers, poorwills and other aerial insectivores; just a short, stiff shaft, black or dark brown in color, with only a few barbs at the base of the shaft. These are probably sensory in function.

Feather Coloration (no illustration – examine the sample feathers)

Feather color is the result of two things: pigmentation and/or structural characteristics. Pigmentation produces the colors orange, yellow, black, gray, brown and some non-iridescent greens and reds. Blues are structural in nature; that is, they are produced by the reflection of light due to the shape of the barbules and the presence of melanin granules (e.g., Western Scrub-Jay). Also, some greens and reds are produced structurally (e.g., Anna's Hummingbird). Structurally colored feathers appear black at angles where light is not reflected properly. Pigmentation colors are actually produced by the absorption of certain wavelengths of light and reflection of other wavelengths, whereas structural colors are produced by reflected light only.

Feather Tracts (Fig. 9 this handout)

At first glance, it would appear that feathers are scattered uniformly over a bird's body, and this is true for penguins, emus, ostriches, cassowaries, and a few other flightless birds. However, most birds have their feathers arranged in distinct areas on their bodies called tracts or pterylae. There are places, called apteria, where contour feathers do not occur. The apteria are not always bare, as there may be down or semiplumes present. These apteria are normally covered by the feathers of adjacent pterylae. Identify the following tracts on the illustrations provided.

Capital a tract extending from the base of the upper mandible to where the head and neck join.

Spinal extends from the back of the capital tract to the upper tail coverts; it generally follows the length of the spine, hence the name.

Humeral On each wing and extending from the anterior part of the shoulder, along the brachium, to the bend of the wing; these feathers are the scapulars.

Femoral a narrow tract on the outer surface of each thigh, from the knee to the vent.

Crural the rest of the leg feathers; separated from the femoral tract by an apterium.

Ventral extends from the mandibular ramus back to the feathers around the vent; divided in the middle by a mid-ventral apterium. Caudal includes the retrices and the upper- and under-tail coverts; also includes the circle of feathers around the vent.

Alar includes the remiges and all the wing feathers, except those of the humeral tract.

6 Fig. 9

7 The Humphrey-Parkes Terminology

Humphrey and Parkes (1959) made an effort to establish a uniform series of terms to describe the plumages and molts that express homologies between all groups of birds anywhere in the world. The following is the terminology they developed and which has been adopted by most ornithologists to describe molts and plumages from hatching onward:

Natal Down Prejuvenal Molt Juvenal Plumage First Prebasic Molt First Basic Plumage First Prealternate Molt First Alternate Plumage Second Prebasic Molt Second Basic Plumage Second Prealternate Molt Second Alternate Plumage Third Prebasic Molt Third Basic Plumage

And so on, depending on how long the bird lives.

Notice that the molts are named for the incoming plumage. The term "plumage" is applied to a single generation of feathers acquired by a molt. Any plumage that does not change with age is termed "definitive" (e.g. Bald Eagle definitive plumage is white head and tail with a dark body, acquired after about 4 years).

FEET

The arrangement of a bird's toes usually indicates adaptation to certain foraging strategies or perching sites. To understand these arrangements, one must know how the toes are numbered. On a "standard" foot, the posterior toe, or hallux, is number 1. The innermost forward toe is number 2; the middle toe is number 3; the outermost toe is number 4. The variations on this foot are seen in the illustrations and on the specimens provided. Examine each, noting the direction of the toes, their numbering, and possible adaptive significance:

Toe Arrangements (Fig. 10 this handout)

Ansiodactyl the "standard" arrangement, with the hallux behind and three toes facing forward; for perching on small branches. (robin)

Syndactyl the third and fourth toes are united for most of their length and have a broad sole. (kingfisher, motmot)

Zygodactyl toes are paired; the second and third toes are in front and the hallux and fourth toe point back. Found in the order Piciformes (e.g. woodpeckers).

Pamprodactyl all four toes point forward. (swifts)

Heterodactyl toes are paired like a zygodactyl foot, but in this case the third and fourth toes are in front and the hallux and second toe point back. Found in the order Trogoniformes (e.g. trogons). Note that the only way to determine if a bird has heterodactyl or zygodactyl toes is by knowing to which order the specimen belongs. To distinguish them anatomically would require detailed dissection to determine the muscles and nerves going to the toes. The position of the hallux, when present and posterior, may vary. An elevated hallux is one that is above ground level. An incumbent hallux is one that is at ground level.

8 Fig. 10

9 Foot Types (Fig.11 this handout)

In addition to toe arrangement, feet may be classified on the basis of function or the degree or shape of the webbing:

Perching no webbing; three toes forward, one back, with a tendon arrangement that increases toe grip as the knee is bent (that's why birds don't fall off branches when they sleep). (robin)

Palmate front toes joined by large amounts of webbing that extends to the tip of the toes. (duck)

Semipalmate half-webbed; anterior facing toes are joined by webbing , but the webbing only extends part way along the toes. (avocet)

Totipalmate fully webbed; all toes face anteriorly and all are webbed for their entire length. (cormorant)

Lobate a foot adapted for swimming, with a series of lobes on the sides of each toe. (American Coot)

Raptorial toes deeply cleft, strong and large with sharply curved talons. (hawk; owl)

10 Fig. 11

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