Diving bird

Diving birds are birds which plunge into water to catch fish or other food. They may enter the water from flight, as does the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), or they may dive from the surface of the water. More than likely they evolved from birds already adapted for swimming that were equipped with such adaptations as lobed or webbed feet for propulsion.[1]

Foot-propelled diving birds

Some diving birds - for example, the extinct Hesperornithes of the Cretaceous Period - propelled themselves with their feet. They were large, streamlined, flightless birds with teeth for grasping slippery prey. Today, cormorants (family Phalacrocoracidae), loons (Gaviidae), and grebes (Podicipedidae) are the major groups of foot propelled diving birds.[2]

Wing-propelled diving birds

Other diving birds are wing - propelled, most notably the penguins (Sphenisciformes), dippers (Cinclus) and auks (Alcidae).[3]

gollark: I mostly end up with CB nebulae, because sometimes I can't resist picking a few up during hunting.
gollark: ***nebulae***
gollark: What's your naming scheme?
gollark: I have lots of CB coppers, one because fish is very nice and superhuman at egg-getting and most because I catch unbreedables oddly frequently.
gollark: I saw fewer coppers than golds/silvers, but at this sample size it's basically entirely flukes.

See also

References
  1. Jung, Sunghwan; Gerwin, John; Dove, Carla; Gart, Sean; Straker, Lorian; Croson, Matthew; Chang, Brian (2016-10-25). "How seabirds plunge-dive without injuries". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (43): 12006–12011. doi:10.1073/pnas.1608628113. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5087068. PMID 27702905.
  2. National Geographic (2007-08-31), Underwater Diving Bird | National Geographic, retrieved 2019-06-25
  3. "Alcidae". Alcidae Inc. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
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