Name: ______________________ Date: _____________ Period: _________

Bird Beak Adaptation Lab

Purpose: To learn about the advantages and disadvantages of phenotype variation, by simulating birds with different
types of beaks competing for various foods.

Background: Hopefully, you recall that Darwin was amazed by the variation in the characteristics of plans and animals
he encountered on his journey. In any habitat, food is limited and the types of foods available may vary. Animals that
have variations that enable them to take advantage of available foods will be more likely to survive. We call beneficial
inherited various adaptations. Adaptations are inherited characteristics that increase an organism’s chance of survival.
Those with the most helpful adaptations will be the most likely to live long enough to pass on their genes to the next
generation. This process ensures that beneficial adaptations will continue in future generations, while disadvantageous
characteristics will not. Understanding the concept of adaptation advantage is absolutely required for an
understanding of how populations exist in ecosystems as well as the process of evolution.

Hypothesis: Read the procedure before making your prediction. Your hypothesis should state which will be the best
type of beak for each type of food and explain why. You will be making 4 different hypotheses.
Make sure they follow the proper formation.  If (insert independent variable), then (insert dependent variable),
because (insert your explanation).
Hypothesis #1

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Hypothesis #2

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Hypothesis #3

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Hypothesis #4

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Name: ______________________ Date: _____________ Period: _________

Materials:

scissors large binder clips toothpicks paper plates

plastic spoons paper clips dried macaroni
tweezers rubber bands plastic cups

Procedure:
1. Each student will be given a spoon, tweezers, binder clip OR pair of scissors.
2. You are now a very hungry bird. The tool you have selected is your “beak”. You can only use your beak to pick up
food.
3. The cup is your stomach. It must remain upright at all times. You must hold your beak in one hand, and your
stomach in your other hand, close to your body. Only food that is placed in the cup by the beak has been
“eaten”.
4. When your teacher says “go”, you will have 20 seconds to feed (or until the food runs out). Collect as much food
in your stomach as possible until the teacher says “stop”.
5. When the teacher says “stop”, students will empty their stomachs and count the contents. Record data in
Individual Data Table. Clean up food items.
6. Repeat this activity with another food item until all items have been recorded.
7. Play one more round in which there is a variety of food available (all food items represented). You do not need
to record the data for the last feeding.

Anyone who is NOT responsible enough to maintain a safe behavior will no longer participate in the activity and
will become an observer with a loss of 10% of your lab grade!

Data:
Individual Data Paper Clips Rubber bands Toothpicks Macaroni
Type of beak:

Class Data: Average the data together for each beak type.
Beak Paper clips Rubber bands Toothpicks Macaroni
Spoon

Binder clip

Tweezers

Scissors

Qualitative Observations: Record your qualitative observations of this activity below.

Name: ______________________ Date: _____________ Period: _________

Graphing the Data:

1. In this experiment, what is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable? (One Sentence).

From this point on, all questions are to be answered in HONORS LEVEL quality! A loss of 5% of the question’s
point value will be taken for each answer that does NOT meet my expectations.

2. Explain why it is better to assess the results or create a graph from the entire class average data, rather than
using only your own data?

3. For this experiment, is it better to use a bar graph or a line graph to display the data? Explain.

Graph:
Name: ______________________ Date: _____________ Period: _________

From this point on, all questions are to be answered in HONORS LEVEL quality! A loss of 5% of the question’s
point value will be taken for each answer that does NOT meet my expectations.

Analysis:
1. What did you notice about your behavior and the behavior of the other “birds”? Was the behavior of the birds
analogous to the behavior of real birds in the wild? Explain.

2. Which beak was best adapted to each type of food? Which beak was least adapted to each type of food?
Explain.

3. Obviously, most habitats have more than one food type available. This was simulated in step 7 of the Procedure.
What was your strategy when all food items were available? How did this differ from your strategy in the
previous scenario? Explain.

4. What if the paper clips were high-protein beetles that were 4 times more nutritious than any other food
items? How would your feeding strategy change? Explain.
Name: ______________________ Date: _____________ Period: _________

5. What would happen if all the bird types in this activity flew to an island where no birds had been before and
they only food available was macaroni? Which birds would be most successful? Which birds would be least
successful? Explain.

6. If we came back to the same island (from #5) in 50 years, what would you expect to see? What type of birds
will live on the island? Explain.

Conclusion:
1. How does this lab simulation provide support for the theory of evolution (CHANGE OVER TIME)? This answer
should be more than one paragraph! Use the back of this page if you need more room to write.