Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
transfer them into buckets with proper food as soon as possible. They eat paper, and the
toxic inks that may be present on the paper would be swallowed, which is probably bad
for birds. In a cool basement, mealworms can be kept alive without reaching their adult
stage for weeks. (Birds seem to prefer eating the larval-stage grubs to the pupae or adult
beetles.)
Offer mealworms in small bowls or small acrylic bird feeders. (Tape any drainage
holes closed to prevent the grubs from squeezing out.) Once birds discover them, you
may be inundated. Your best strategy is to set out a small handful at one or more specific
times of day. If you whistle every time you set them out, your chickadees may soon start
flying in the moment they hear you.
Adaptations for Eating
Q Great Blue Herons, loons, eagles, and puffins all specialize on catching and eating
fish, but they look so different! I thought things that caught and ate the same food
evolved to look similar.
A
All of these species do eat fish, but each has evolved a different way of capturing them
and feeding them to their young. Herons stab or grab their fish from a standing position.
Theirbillandneckmusclesarepowerfulandtheirfeetarewidetosupporttheirbodiesin
wetmudwithoutsinking.Theycatchmostoftheirfoodinshallowerwaterthandoloons,
which chase their fish through deeper water. Like herons, loons grab or stab a fish with
theirbills.Inbothcases,thefeetandbillarewelladaptedforcatchingfishbutareuseless
for carrying or tearing fish apart, so they swallow a fish whole.
Herons nest in trees, and their nestlings remain in the nest for several weeks after
hatching.Tofeedthem,heronsfirstswallowthefishcatch.Withtheweightintheirstom-
achs, close to their center of gravity, they fly back to the nest to regurgitate the semidi-
gested fish right into their nestlings' mouths. Loon chicks follow their parents, who give
them tiny fish and large aquatic insects until the babies learn to catch them on their own.
They don't need to transport fish anywhere.
When puffins spy a school of fish from the air, they dive into the water and start snap-
ping up the little fish. They swallow some under water, or when the fish are abundant,
