Every creature or living organism has different characteristics that enable it to survive in the environment it lives. These are in form of body parts, brain and other features like feathers, legs, claws, wings, weight among others.
Adaption ideally means a process of change by which a living organism becomes better to its environment. This entails different ways how a living organism can easily suit and become familiar to the environment it inhabits.
Birds, just like any other living organism, have adapted to their environment amazingly for example young and tender swifts can be in the air flying for 3 years without landing, the penguins can dive for 500m in the waters to catch fish, bower birds in south-east Asia build flower gardens to attract the mates.
Birds are warm-blooded and this means that they generate their warmth using their bodies like any other mammal. They can stay in the coldest environment here on earth. Some fats build under the skin of birds which are used as a source of heat hence keeping them warm. For instance, bar-headed gees can fly at a height of a jet plane and survive the coldness also, emperor penguins can stay in temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius and still survive.
Birds have adapted to feeding behaviors since food is found in different areas and they need to fly to reach such places. Some birds like sand grouse nest far from water sources and they need to fly over 50km to get water for their chicks. It uses its feathers which are cotton-like and when it returns, it uses its beak to feed its young ones.
Some birds change their environment by migrating from one place to another and they are normally termed migratory birds. Some change environment due to weather patterns, others to search for food, and other birds search for breeding areas such as the gees, raptors, ducks migrate to Uganda for breeding.
Birds like eagles have hooked beaks and sharp claws that are used to tear and grab prey. They also have the energy to carry a prey of up to 12 pounds approximately 6 kilograms of which the heaviest eagle weighs 10 kilograms.
Birds that live in the desert area have fewer feathers compared to birds that live in forest areas. This is because the birds in the desert need to absorb heat while the birds in forested areas need to attract warmth because of much coldness.
Some insect-eating birds move or flock in groups such as tree creeper, woodpeckers, weaver birds to search for food as others follow herds of animals like cattle, buffaloes and elephants to get ticks as their food for example yellow wagtail, herons and cattle egrets normally follow cape buffaloes and cattle to pick ticks.
Birds are teeth – less and while eating, they just swallow the food to the throat and some have a crop on their throat such as pigeons. This is a storing bag for these birds when they are rushing while eating and digestion takes place later.
Some birds don’t have legs but have toes that are used for clinging and building nests such as swifts while others have long legs like flamingos, ostrich, and crowned cranes among others. Some birds like ostriches have heavy legs even heavier than human legs, to enable them fly less and run faster.
