Want to see shorebirds up close? The Bird Gallery of the Canadian Museum of Nature represents most of the bird species in Canada. Come and admire the more than 500 real specimens
Enjoy a 360° Gallery Tour of our Bird Gallery.
- Shorebirds. From the Hinterland Who's Who web site.
http://www.hww.ca/
hww2.asp?id=75 - Bird Identification Clues
http://www.nature.ca/
exhibits/exb/
exb_bid_e.cfm
Videos
- Shorebirds at Port Mahon
(10 min. 31 sec.)
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=gpm-H59xTL8 - Too Close for Comfort:
Shorebirds
(4 min. 35 sec.)
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=D3x3oVKdzhI - Shorebirds ID
(7 min. 4 sec.)
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=f8fIJ-4NtoI
Shorebirds do not eat mud, even though they may appear to. Watch a Semipalmated Sandpiper peck a mud flat with its beak, and you might think the bird was feeding on the mud.
In fact, the shorebirds are eating tiny animals hidden in the soil, or in the thin film of mud on the surface.
A flock of Short-billed Dowitchers (Limnodromus griseus) feeding on shore.
The body of shorebirds is well adapted to the task of feeding from the mud.
- Their long legs allow them to walk in shallow water.
- Their sharp eyes spot signs of food.
- Their long, narrow bill can snatch prey or pull it from its hiding place in the mud.
Always Moving on page 2
What Do They Eat?
Food for shorebirds is provided mainly by wetlands, which can be freshwater or marine
Marine Wetlands
A Short-billed Dowitcher.
Marine wetlands offer a rich buffet for birds. These wetlands include areas where streams and rivers meet the ocean. The dynamic environment of intertidal mud flats and saltwater marshes are also marine wetlands.
Shorebirds such as sandpipers, plovers and turnstones find an abundance of invertebrates to eat. On the menu:
- worms
- molluscs
- crustaceans
- insect larvae.
Freshwater Wetlands
An American Avocet.
In freshwater wetlands (such as swamps), birds forage for invertebrates. Wetland invertebrates that birds eat include:
- snails
- insects and insect larvae (caddisflies, beetles, flies, midges)
- crustaceans (shrimp, water fleas)
- annelids (worms).
Bacteria on the Menu
A few species of shorebirds find food in the biofilm (a thin layer of microbes and organic material) on the surface of the mud.
Algae, bacteria and other organisms can grow so thick that they form mats. The mats can be found on creek banks and in salt marshes.
- Large groups of migrating sandpipers, such as the Western Sandpiper shown here, stop at Roberts Bank, near Vancouver. There, they feed on biofilm.
- They can eat up to 20 tonnes of biofilm a day.
- Biofilm can make up half their daily diet.
Biofilm is also food for invertebrates such as polychaetes (a type of worm), crustaceans and molluscs.
These creatures, in turn, will be food for some shorebirds.
