Herbivorous birds: examples, characteristics and types

Herbivorous birds are all those that feed on vegetables In any of its presentations, from nectar to grains.

All herbivorous birds have the following characteristics in common:

• Peak adapted to a herbivorous diet: The first step to identify a herbivorous bird is to recognize its peak. Birds lack teeth and only have this structure to process their food, so the peaks are extremely specialized. In this article you can discover the different types of bird peaks.
• Digestive system adapted to herbivorous diet: A carnivorous animal does not process the same as a herbivorous, because digestive enzymes are particular for the components of the origin of the food. For example, a scavenger bird can break down bacteria and meat in rot within its stomach, but a herbivorous bird does not. On the other hand, birds that feed on leaves and stems can decompose cellulose, a very hard plant component that cannot be processed by carnivores. We tell you what are the scavenging animals: examples in this this post of Ecology Verde.
• Fast digestion: Birds have a particularly short intestine compared to other animals, so their digestion is equally faster.
• Small size: Herbivorous birds do not need to have a great body, as do the raptors that can even prey mammals.

Do not hesitate to take a look at the following ecology article about herbivorous animals: what are and examples.

Plants are complex organisms composed of several parts. This is why there is no single type of herbivorous bird, but that the classification of herbivorous birds can be based on:

Nectarivores

They feed on the nectar that sprouts from the flowers, composed mainly of sugars. The plants produce this liquid within the so -called nectaries with a very particular function: attract animals and insects to be able to polline. This creates a close and mutual relationship between them. We tell you more about what is the nectar and its function in this article that we recommend.

Granivores

They feed on cereals, which are those plants that produce grains, such as wheat or corn. Recall that the grains are fruits adhered to the seed and with cascarilla. The birds that consume this type of food have a buche, a structure located in the esophagus with the function of softening and moistening this hard food. Below, near the stomach, they have another structure to process grains called Molleja, which contains pebbles with which it crushes to the grains finely grind. All granivorous birds obtain the molleja stones eating them directly from their surroundings, so it must be noted that granivorous birds must complete their diet with pebbles.

Seeds

They feed mainly on plant seeds. Their digestive system is similar to that of granivores: they also have caleja and buche in order to process hard food. It is common for birds that eat seeds to also feed on grains, but we make the distinction to avoid confusion between seeds and grains.

Frugivoros

They are herbivorous birds that seek fruits to feed, such as forest berries. They are important elements of the green areas because they disperse seeds through their feces, helping plants to reach very distant places. This type of animal dispersion is called zoocoria. Do not hesitate to consult this post with more frugivorous animals: characteristics and list of examples.

Chupasavias

It refers to a single group of birds that feeds on the sap of the trees, a liquid that is found by the plant tissues by which indispensable elements are transported for plants, such as minerals, sugars, and of course, water.

Herbivorous birds can be classified by their predominant feeding type of which we have just reviewed, but it should be clarified that it is common to complement the diet with occasional insect consumption or with some other type of additional herbivorous diet. This complementation depends on the availability of resources and varies according to the season.

Now that you know what its classification is, we will see some examples of this type of herbivorous birds.

Chupasavias (Sphyrapicus spp.)

This type of herbivorous birds are carpenter bird relatives and have the same head with red feathers. As well as them, they have the ability to peck the tree bark, but they do it mainly to suck the sap.

They can occasionally complement their diet with insects that are also attracted to this liquid, with fruits and seeds. They can become serious pests due to the damage that violates living trees.

Doves (Columbidae family)

Nowadays, doves are city animals and urbanized areas, they even become pests and important disease transmitters. These urbanized pigeons have learned to consume anything they can find in the garbage or in the asphalted land. These pigeons can reproduce all year due to continuous food availability, unlike non -domestic pigeons.

On the contrary, Wild pigems are properly Seeds and granivorouseating legumes and grains of corn or barley. They can complete their diet occasionally ingesting fruits, snails or slugs.

In this other post you can know different types of pigeons.

Colibris (Trochilidae family)

The hummingbirds They are nectarivores and his elongated peak is perfectly designed to introduce it into the bell -shaped flowers. Within this peak they have the equally long tongue with which they take the floral nectar.

These very small herbivorous birds have a very fast metabolism due to the energy demand of their rapid flutter that allows it to be suspended in the air, something that the other birds cannot do. They need to eat 8 times every hour To stay functional.

We recommend reading these other posts on types of hummingbirds and flowers that attract hummingbirds.

Other examples of herbivorous birds are the different species of parrots, ducks, geese and swans. After knowing these examples of herbivorous birds, do not hesitate to consult this other post of ecology see about the classification of birds to have more information on the subject.

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