Habitat is Where It's At

Every species of bird, fish, insect, reptile, amphibian, and mammal has basic needs for food, water, shelter and space. These components make up an animal's habitat. While animals have different needs and thus different habitat requirements, migratory birds require a wide variety of habitat types. Waterfowl are dependent on wetlands, which are among the most productive ecosystems on earth and home to more endangered species than any other type of habitat. Wetlands also support shorebirds, wading and marsh birds, and songbirds. It is not surprising that wetlands-dependent birds have experienced significant declines. The United States has lost more than one-half of the wetlands that existed prior to European settlement. Today, fewer than 93 million acres remain, and wetlands continue to decline by about 200,000 acres each year.

Migratory songbirds, including warblers, vireos, finches, flycatchers, thrushes, swifts, tanagers, and orioles, require intact forests and grasslands throughout their migratory range. Vast woodlands once covered much of eastern North America from the boreal forest of Canada to the pine forests of the southeastern United States. In the more arid west, the Rocky Mountains are forested too. Since the time of European settlement, approximately 90 percent of the original forest cover in the contiguous United States has been logged or lost to urban and agricultural development.

Migratory birds require adequate habitat in their wintering grounds in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Tropical forests and wetlands of the Western Hemisphere are home to several thousands of bird species both resident (remaining in the tropics all year) and migratory. Tropical forests worldwide continue to be eliminated at the rate of nearly 50 acres per minute.

As a group, grassland-dependent migratory bird species have shown steeper, more consistent, and more geographically widespread declines than have any other group of birds. Songbirds, shorebirds (e.g. the long-billed curlew and the upland sandpiper), and many raptors are among the migratory birds dependent on grassland habitats. Since 1830, tall grass prairie has been reduced by more than 95 percent because of destruction of native prairie for agriculture, grazing, and development.

The National Wildlife Refuge System encompasses a broad array of the habitats required by migratory birds. Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Wildlife Refuge System includes over 500 refuges, which range in size from just a few acres to millions of acres. Many refuges are dominated by wetlands, but all other habitats are represented, including coastlines, forest, grassland, deserts, and even arctic tundra. Each refuge is entirely unique, yet all have one characteristic in common - a goal to conserve wildlife and their habitats for people.

The National Wildlife Refuge System provides a means to protect a remnant of what America was once like, where you, your students and their families can witness squadrons of Canada geese, snow geese, black ducks, canvasback ducks, mallards and many other species of waterfowl in precision flight on their way from Canada and the northern United States to warmer climates. Through the Junior Duck Stamp Program and other contributions, you and your students can be a part of the continued growth and development of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

As a result of completing the activities in this section, students will:

Wonderful Habitats for Wacky Birds

Grades: Primary, Middle

Objectives: As a result of completing this activity, students will use art production skills and employ principles of three-dimensional shape, color, and texture to create imaginary habitats and birds (ART), and gain an increased understanding of the relationship of species' adaptations to habitat conditions (SCIENCE).

Materials:

Instructions:

Activity I: Wacky Birds

1) Define and discuss adaptation as it relates to the evolution of a bird's anatomy and behavior. Have students brainstorm about some "adaptations" they may have developed to "survive" in their own habitats (homes). Have students consider both the "physical" and "behavioral" adaptations that birds have developed to survive in their habitats. These may include hollow bones for light weight in flying; fast growing fledglings that can fend for themselves early on and will be big and strong enough to migrate in the fall; camouflage coloring of young to hide from predators; air sacs in their bones to help them float (they pump air out when they dive). Have students list all the adaptations they can think of that their adopted waterfowl specie has evolved to survive in its habitat. You may wish to have them record this list in their Waterfowl Journals.

2) Tell students they will each have a chance to design and create a "Wacky Bird" - one well adapted to its habitat. Have students consider the various adaptations they will want to include in their wacky-bird creations by completing the chart below before they get started.

Wacky Bird Planning Chart:

size
dominant colors
favorite foods
habitat preferences
nesting materials
features that protect from predators e.g. camouflage

3) Cluster students into small groups and distribute crafts materials, including toilet paper tubes, pipe cleaners, modeling clay, paper, colored pencils, crayons, etc. Have students develop craft sculptures of their Wacky Bird using their adaptations charts as a reference.

4) (Optional) You may wish to have students write short narrative descriptions of their Wacky Birds to more fully describe their Wacky Birds adaptations, habitat, and food preferences, etc.

5) Have students present their birds to the class, paying particular attention to what they wrote in the habitat preferences section of their Wacky Bird planning chart. Once all the students have presented their Wacky Birds, hold a general discussion about the ways in which real birds have developed specific physical and behavioral adaptations to survive in their environment and particular habitat.

Activity II: Wonderful Habitats

1) Students should now fully understand, and be able to articulate, how their Wacky Bird is adapted to a particular type of habitat and how this habitat supports the Wacky Bird. Tell students they will be creating a wonderful habitat for their Wacky Bird. You may wish to have students develop their wonderful habitats as a large mural-type illustration, a diorama, or in another format. Tell students that their wonderful habitats must be developed to support their Wacky Bird's adaptive characteristics. Have students consider the habitat components required by all birds before getting started. What specific characteristics will students incorporate for each of these habitat components to support their Wacky Bird? What food; shelter; water; space?

2) Have students create wonderful habitats incorporating these habitat requirements.

3) (Optional) Have students take their Wacky Birds to "visit" the wonderful habitats developed by their classmates. Have students consider whether or not their Wacky Bird could survive in any of the other habitats based on its particular habitat needs. Have the entire class evaluate all of the wonderful habitats and determine if any one wonderful habitat could support a variety of the Wacky Birds.

Evaluation:

Do students' Wacky Birds demonstrate principles of composition: balance, repetition and variation? Do students' Wacky Birds' wonderful habitats demonstrate general facility with the use of the elements of art: line; color; flat shape three-dimensional form; and texture? Do students" Wacky Birds demonstrate a basic understanding of adaptations?

Bird and Habitat Balance Mobiles

Grades: Primary, Middle

Objectives: After completing this activity, students will be able to manipulate form and shape to construct two mobiles, the first representing contour and symmetry of birds in flight and the second illustrating the need to balance basic components in an ecosystem (ART), and identify birds based on silhouette shape as well as understand the concept of the health of an ecosystem is based on the balance of its various components (SCIENCE).

Materials:

Instructions:

Activity I: Bird Silhouette Mobile (Primary)

1) Hold a general discussion with students about mobiles - moving works of art that are created by suspending and balancing shapes. The first mobile was created by an American artist, Alexander Calder, who experimented with combinations of shapes and weights balancing each other. Calder also discovered that the suspended objects move in a rotating fashion due to air currents. Explain that most birds can be identified by a general silhouette shape. Creating silhouettes can be helpful in learning to identify birds.

2) Divide the class into groups of five or six students. Distribute field guides and the "Lists of Commonly Seen Migratory Birds." Have each student select a species with a distinctive silhouette while in flight or in a stationary position. Encourage each student in each group to select a bird from each of the four species groups - waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, and songbirds.

3) Have students sketch silhouettes of their birds on black construction paper paying attention to the overall dimensions and shapes of the body, head, neck, and the feet of the birds. Encourage students to add outline details of wing and tail feathers.

4) Have students cut out silhouettes and mount them on a square or circle of white poster board or foam core (a single circle or square could display two silhouettes depicting one side of the bird in flight, and one side depicting the bird in a perched position.)

5) Have students make a small hole in the top of the square or circle, attach fishing line for hanging, and attach the silhouettes to the horizontal wires. Have them begin with the shorter lengths of wire at the bottom of the mobile and progress to the longer lengths at the top. Balance each section as it is assembled. Each wire can contain a single object at both ends, or a single object on one end balanced with a shorter balanced wire (containing two objects) on the other end.

6) When mobiles are completed, have students hang them where they can catch air currents.

Activity II: Habitat Balance Mobile (Middle)

1) Review birds' habitat requirements for food, shelter, water, and cover (see Habitat is Where It's At section overview). Can students describe the habitat needs of the birds they selected for their bird silhouette mobiles?

2) Tell students they will be creating a physically well-balanced mobile to depict the specific habitat of one bird represented in the bird silhouette mobile.

3) Cluster students into groups and have each group select one bird. Have the groups create lists of all the things the bird needs to survive in its habitat including its specific requirements for food, water, shelter, and cover. Groups' lists may vary greatly from one another depending on the bird selected by the group. Waterfowl will require marsh grass, water, and a wide variety of food substances, including phytoplankton, aquatic plants, small fish (every specie of ducks has different food requirements), while songbirds will require trees, worms, insects, berries, grubs, etc. (every songbird has different food requirements.)

4) Distribute old magazines, pens, crayons, magic markers, or other drawing materials. Have each group clip pictures from the magazines or create new pictures to represent the varied items birds need to survive.

5) Once groups have created, or gathered representative images, of all the things their bird need to survive, have them adhere pictures to poster board and cut out poster board shapes. Now have students follow the procedure outlined in Activity I, steps 4 and 5, to construct their second mobile.

6) Explain that the most important aspect of the habitat mobile is that it is well-balanced, just as healthy ecosystems must be well-balanced. Ask students to describe what they think will happen if one element of the mobile is removed. Ask them to describe verbally how balance or imbalance of their habitat mobile relates to the health of ecosystems.

Evaluation:

Did students' bird silhouette mobiles reflect mastery of elements of contour, shape, and symmetry? Did the habitat mobile represent an understanding of balance as it relates to healthy ecosystems?

Back to Duck Stamp Table of Contents