Bird Buffet

In science class, you have learned how an animal's physical traits, such as a bird's beak, may provide an advantage for survival in one environment but not in another. In this activity, you and your family members will create model bird beaks and simulate the feeding behavior of different birds.

Materials

• variety of household and kitchen tools (see chart)
• paper plates
• small cup
• variety of foods (see chart)

Procedure

With an adult's help, gather the different foods and household items listed in the chart (look in the two far-right columns). Simulate the feeding behavior of each bird by using the simulated beak tool to “eat” the food listed in the chart.

Bird Species	Actual Diet	Simulated Food	Simulated Beak Tool
hummingbird	nectar inside a flower	juice in a narrow vase	drinking straw
woodpecker	insects in wood	puffed rice embedded in plastic foam	tweezers
finch	seeds	mixed nuts in the shell	nutcracker or pliers
duck	aquatic vegetation	puffed rice floating in a cup of water	slotted spoon

Results

How does each bird's beak create a survival advantage that allows the bird to reproduce and pass its inherited traits on to the next generation? What might happen to each bird if its environment experienced a natural disaster in which all the plants and animals were wiped out?