Waterfowl communities

Zoology

14 February 2011

Donald Winslow

What are waterfowl?

• Kingdom Animalia– Phylum Chordata

• Class Aves– Order Anseriformes

» Family Anatidae (swans, geese, ducks)

Other waterbirds we may see

• Order Podicipediformes (grebes)• Order Pelecaniformes

(pelicans & cormorants)

• Order Ciconiiformes (herons & egrets)• Order Falconiformes (e.g. Bald Eagle)• Order Gruiformes (e.g. American Coot)• Order Charadriiformes (shorebirds, gulls)• Order Coraciiformes (kingfishers)

What is a community?

What is a community?A group of individuals of different species interacting with each other.

Objective of waterfowl exercise:

Determine how composition of waterbird communities are affected by size of lake, habitat, human disturbance, etc.

As the size of a lake increases, the proportion of area where the water is deep increases.

We would expect that birds that forage in deep water would have a higher relative abundance at larger lakes.

Dabbling and diving ducks

• Dabblers eat a lot of vegetation and tend to forage in shallow water near the shore.

• Diving ducks eat more fish and forage in deeper water.

What’s relative abundance?

• The proportion of individuals in a community that are a given species.

• Example: If there are 100 ducks and 70 of them are Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), the relative abundance of Mallards is 0.7.

Hypothesis: Bird species which forage in deep water would have higher relative abundance at a large lake than at a small lake.

• Prediction: Diving ducks would have a higher relative abundance at a large lake than at a small lake.

• Prediction: Dabbling ducks would have a higher relative abundance at a small lake than at a large lake.

Dabblers

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)

Diving Ducks

Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)

Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

Study design

• Count waterbirds at lakes of varying size.

• Classify duck species as divers or dabblers.

• Classify other species by feeding habits or other relevant variables

• Determine whether predictions of hypothesis are met.

• Draw conclusions.

Resources online

• http://www.okbirds.org

• http://www.suttoncenter.org

• http://donaldwinslow.info