Page 28 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

The ability to fly means that birds have been able to occupy
an incredible range of habitats, including cliff faces, rain-forest
canopies, and mountainsides. Birds have streamlined, lightweight
bodies with wings that are covered and insulated by feathers. Their
toothless beaks vary in shape and size according to their diet and

feeding method. The near 10,000 species of birds are divided
BIRDS WOODPECKERS

into 29 orders, most of which are represented here.

woodpeckers use their
strong beaks as chisels to
Tree-dwelling
to probe for food. Their
order includes toucans.

These flightless seabirds
PENGUINS carve out tree holes and
use their wings as flippers
to propel their streamlined
in pursuit of fish and squid.

Found in tropical forests
TROGONS bodies through the water
worldwide, trogons
have brilliantly colored

mainly on insects.
These ground-dwelling
TINAMOUS feathers and feed
birds, found in the
Ostriches (the world’s biggest birds), emus, grasslands of South
and kiwis are flightless birds. Over time they
camouflaged, have small
America, are well
wings, and are fast fliers
have lost the ability to fly, so they run to
KIWIS and runners.

Long-beaked, multicolored hummingbirds
escape predators.
hover in front of flowers to feed on nectar.
Their close relatives, swifts, spend their lives
HUMMINGBIRDS

Together with ducks and
geese, swans are waterfowl—
SWANS in the air feeding on insects.
excellent swimmers with
With a small head and thin
neck to make diving easy,
GREBES large, webbed feet.
grebes are strong swimmers

Living on the ground
TURKEYS and live on sheltered lakes. KINGFISHERS Pigeons and doves are plump,
and rarely flying, turkeys
belong to the game birds,
an order that also includes
With a daggerlike beak,
pheasants and peacocks.
a kingfisher sits waiting
strong fliers, with heads that bob
up and down when they walk.
then dives into the
water and grabs a fish.

26 on its riverside perch DOVES

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