Quiz 1

• why are birds important for the environment?

  pollinators, fertilizer, dispersion of seeds, dispersion of spores, exterminators of pests, create habitats, remove decay and prevent disease, help other species
• what is the economic importance of birds?

  provisioning services, regulating services, supporting services, and cultural services
• provisioning services include game meat for food, down for garments, and guano for fertilizer
• regulating services include scavenging carcasses and waste, controlling populations of pests, pollinating plants, and dispersing seeds
• supporting services include cycling nutrients and soil formation
• cultural services include roles in art and religion and bird watching
• seed dispersal and pollination: african mahoganies depend on birds to disperse large seeds
• pest control: can reduce pest damage to crops without using insecticide, can remove rodents without use of rodenticide
• scavengers and sanitary services: vultures clean up decay, acidic secretions kill spores, and reduce disease to humans and animals
• birds and ecosystem services: the loss of birds can change entire ecosystems
• bee hummingbird: smallest species of bird in the world, found in cuba, weighs 1.8 grams
• ostrich: largest bird in the world, weighs 100 kg (50-70,000 x as much as the bee hummingbird), can run 45 mph and sustain 30 mph
• peregrin falcon: fastest diving bird, up to 200 mph, withstand G force of 27 G when pulling out of a dive, punch their prey then come back to prevent damage to talons
• bar headed goose: highest migratory pattern, migrate over the Himalayas twice a year at 33,000 feet
• the importance of birds includes scientific, economic, and cultural reasons
• Ernst Mayr: evolutionary biologist discovered allopatric speciation and the biological species concept
• allopatric speciation: new species arise because of divergence (changes) that take place when organisms are isolated from each other
• biological species concept: species is a group of interbreeding individuals that are reproductively isolated from other such groups
• Charles darwin: discovered natural selection through observation of darwin's finches and artificial selection through pigeons
• Rosemary and Peter Grant: fund that changes in abiotic and biotic environment can cause quick evolutionary change
• E. O. Wilson and Robert MacArthur discovered island biogeography
• island biogeography: species composition determined by immigration and extinction
• Joseph Grinnell: studied california thrashers and coined "niche"
• niche: sum of the habitat requirements an organism needs to survive and reproduce
• ethology is the study of behavioral processes
• Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz coined ethology, Lorenz studied imprinting
• Gordan Orians and Steve Emlen studied bird mating systems and coined the polygyny threshold hypothesis
• polygyny threshold hypothesis: point at which it is favorable for a female to enter into a polygynous, multiple mating partner, relationship
• W.D. Hamilton: studied florida scrubjays and studied altruism and kinship
• florida scrubjays: young males stay with parents for a long time to help raise younger siblings
• zebra finch: hardy and easy to keep in captivity, used in neurological studies as a vocal learning model similar to human speech
• economic importance of birds: pest control, seed dispersal, pollinators, hunting, bird watching, and pets
• negative economic impacts of birds: destroy crops and feed on raised animals
• evening grosbeak: important for insect control, each bird worth $10 pesticide use today
• western bluebird: important for protecting grapes in vineyards, build nest boxes to encourage insect elimination
• clark's nutcracker: important for seed dispersal of white bark pine trees, they collect and bury seeds throughout the year, if birds were removed it would cost around $1 billion for seed dispersal
• hummingbirds are important pollinators
• european starlings: flocks can destroy orchard in matter of hours
• double breasted cormorant: feed on catfish in commercial catfish operations
• bald eagles feed on organic free range chicken farms, 1000 chickens a day are killed