Bird spotting

Bird Spotting
You may not realize it, but birds are everywhere around us!
They are out in the parks, up in the trees, spotted around the neighborhood, and in the birdhouse in your own backyard.

Go out and see how many birds you can spot!
A good place to start is by going to your local park, the surrounding trees are home to all kinds of birds.
Now when you get there, stop and listen...
Can you hear them singing?

Each species of bird has their own unique calls. So, if you know the calls you know which types of birds are around.

To get a sample of what some Manitoban bird calls may sound like, click on the yellow links below that say, "Click", to listen to all types of birds in Manitoba!

Ravens (left) and crows (right) are very similar visually, but their tails are very different. Raven tails look like fans and the crow tails are more like a triangle or pizza slice.

Common Manitoban Bird Songs
Click to hear a Cedar Waxwing
Click to hear a Common Raven
Click to hear a Prairie Warbler
Click to hear a Canyon Wren
Click to hear a Chipping Sparrow
Click to hear a Black-Capped Chickadee
Click to hear a Tufted Titmouse
Click to hear a Blue Jay
Click to hear an American Crow
Click to hear a Wood Thrush
Click to hear a Hermit Thrush
Click to hear a Dark-Eyed Junco
Click to hear a Pine Warbler
Click to hear a Carolina Wren
Click to hear a Northern Cardinal
Click to hear a Common Yellowthroat
Click to hear a Canadian goose

The Common grackle is another black bird that may be confused for a crow or raven, but notice they have coloured eyes and in the light their head feathers appear a bluish green

What Do You See?
Human eyes can see wave lengthens in what is called the "Visible Light Spectrum", but some birds see a little differently...
Some birds can see in the ultraviolet wavelengths, meaning they can see UV rays like those sometimes used at crime scenes!

The light spectrum

This is because their eyes have both, a special layer of oil in a special photoreceptor cell that filters out these UV wavelengths.
Without the oil or photoreceptor cell they would not be able to see in UV.[1]
Scientists aren't entirely sure why birds have this ability, but there are many ideas like [2]:

Hunting prey that leave urine that reflect UV.
Patterns on their feathers to show the difference between males and females for mating.
Spotting flower centers for nectar.
Keeping an eye out for theirs and other bird eggs.

Diagram of a Human eye

Notice the Photoreceptor cells on the right of the diagram
Humans have three but some birds would have one more

So when birds look at the world they see this!

Depth Perception
Depth perception is how we can see objects at different distances.
Try this Activity:
Point your finger and put it in front of your face while closing one of your eyes. Now slowly move that finger away from your face while looking at it.
Notice how your finger is clearer when it is further away and how that background is always a little bit blurry. That is how our eyes perceive depth.
But some birds will see the finger and the background clearly at the same time.

How Can Birds Fly?
Birds have many functions that allow them to fly, but the most notable reason is their feathers.

Throughout their lives they will molt their feathers, (like shedding their feathers will fall off). They will still keep some small fluffy down feathers, but they will also grow new ones that are bigger, and stronger.

Two kinds of these feathers are the contour and flight feathers.
The contour feathers give the birds body it's shape, while the flight feathers will be used to help them fly. [3]

A young bird with down. Image Credit: Flickr User m.gifford, via CC

Types of bird feathers

This picture illustrates the feather of a bird [6]

Ever wonder why a feather seems to peel apart into little strands but sticking them together again is so much harder?

This is because feathers have little fiber strands called barbules, and on these barbules there are little hooks that hold onto the barbule above. So, when you pull them apart you unhook them. Since they're so tiny hooking them again is really hard.

Another common belief is that birds have hollow,( empty for open space and air) bones that are lighter than bones that are not hollow. However, this may not be true based on research from University of Massachusetts Amherst [4]. These bones have been found to be denser than none hollow bones. Which is good because they are still strong even though they are small and thin. But the question is do they help birds fly, and why have them hollow if not be lighter?

These bones help birds fly in another way. The open pockets in the bones allow for more storage of Oxygen, the air we breathe. This means that the birds can store more energy which can be used for flying which is very important since flying is hard work. But not all birds seem to think so. Penguins, loons, and Puffins don't have hollow bones and this may be because they dive a lot when hunting.

Why do birds have Beaks?
Birds as we know are very different from us humans, they have beaks and no teeth. [6] But some birds will have small ridges that may look like teeth, or have the word tooth in their name such as the Double-Toothed Kite. The tooth is actually a sharp ridge that is part of the beak. [7]

But then how do birds chew their food?

Birds have a special organ that grinds up the food after they've swallowed it. It's called the gizzard and it'll take rocks and sand to crush up the food for digestion.

Sometimes the bird will make a casting or pellet from the bones and other bits that they cannot digest. These will be regurgitated so that the next meal can be digested.

Sources: