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Shelledy Elementary

Birds

Colorado Life Zones: Seasons, Plants, & Animals
Step 1: Choose One of the Life Zones or Choices Below

Foothills Life Zones: Seasons, Plants, & Animals
Step 2: Choose a Topic from the Foothills Life Zones & Scroll Down
General Information	Through the Seasons	Woodlands and Shrublands	Awesome Adaptations
Plants and Trees	Mammals	Birds	Reptiles & Amphibians

Birds of the Foothills Life Zones
Many different birds live in the foothills. The many grasses, pinyon trees, juniper trees, ponderosa pines, and oakbrush provide lots of places to hide and find food. Some seed eating birds, like the black-capped chickadee and pinyon jay, may live in the foothills all year round. Birds that mainly eat berries and insects, like the american robin and yellow-breasted chat, need to migrate south in the winter in order to find food. Other birds, like the wild turkey and blue grouse, have adapted to eat berries, seeds, and insects. They can stay in the foothills all year round. The foothills life zone is a great place to live if you are a bird of prey. There are many birds, rodents, rabbits, reptiles, and other small animals to eat. Plus, the canyons, mesas, and trees provide many places to build nests. The sharp-shinned hawk, peregrine falcon, and other birds of prey soar in the wind searching the woodlands, shrublands, and open meadows for their next meal.
Golden Eagle Peregrine Fund Mercerburg's Academy CO Div of Wildlife Animal Files		Peregrine Falcon Peregrine Fund CO Div of Wildlife Mercerburg's Academy
Sharp-shinned Hawk Peregrine Fund Mercerburg's Academy CSU NDIS		American Kestrel Peregrine Fund Nature Works Hogle Zoo
Red-tailed Hawk Pergrine Fund Nature Works Southwest Wildlife		Turkey Vulture Peregrine Fund Vultures and Condors Hogle Zoo
Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse All About Birds CO Div of Wildlife Utah Div of Wildlife		Black-billed Magpie All About Birds Nature Works CSU NDIS
Western Tanager All About Birds Nature Works CSU NDIS		Wild Turkey Nature Works Hogle Zoo
Pinyon Jay All About Birds Nature Works CSU NDIS		Other Birds	Blue or Dusky Grouse Black-chinned Hummingbird Western Scrub Jay Great Horned Owl American Robin Common Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee Black-billed Cuckoo Mourning Dove Western Bluebird Yellow Breasted Chat Many more birds
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Awesome Adaptations: Peregrine Falcon
The peregrine falcon has one of the most remarkable attacks of the animal kingdom. They will fly up high in the sky riding warm drafts of air. The peregrine falcons has amazingly strong eyesight.They will circle really high in the sky and look for their prey, like birds, rabbits, and rodent. Once they found their prey, they can stay locked on and focused to it. When the falcon is high enough, it will tuck in its perfectly curved wings and fly nearly straight down zeroing in on their prey like a self guiding missile. The falcons can reach up to 200 miles per hour in their controlled fall. Then they stick out their claws and stab the prey with their sharp talons in the air or on the ground. Either way, the hunt happens so fast that the prey almost never sees it coming and has no time to react. The peregrine falcon is amazing in other ways too. The falcons like to live in the mesas, plateaus, mountainss, and canyons where there are large cliffs. They find a partner and mate for life, making their nest on a safe ledge on tall cliff. The tall cliff gives the nest a safe place from predators, a great place to look down to spy for food, and an easy place to take off from so they can fly high in the sky. Peregrine falcons nearly became extinct due to the use of DDT and other pesticides. Farmers would spray pesticides on their fields to get rid of the insects and other small creatures that eat their crops. The birds and other small animals would eat the poisened insects or seeds. Then the peregrine falcon and other birds of prey would swoop down and eat the poisened birds and small animals. The DDT would then possibly kill the peregrine falcon or make it so the babies would die. Peregrine falcons nearly became extinct before humans woke up to the dangers of the pesticides. It is an important lesson that if we put a pesticide or poisen into the food web, then it wiill spread throughout the whole food web eventually affecting humans too. Sources of information and to find more information: Peregrine Fund, CO Div of Wildlife, Mercerburg's Academy
Foothills	Foothills


Foothills	Foothills