What Makes a Bird a Raptor?

  1. Birds belong to a large group of animals called

    1. eagles
    2. vertebrates
    3. mammals
    4. ducks

  2. Scientists believe birds evolved from which group of vertebrates?

    1. amphibians
    2. fish
    3. mammals
    4. reptiles

  3. All birds grow

    1. large
    2. gray
    3. hair
    4. feathers

  4. True or False

    1. ___ All birds have wings - even birds that cannot fly (e.g. ostriches and penguins).
    2. ___ All raptors are cold-blooded.
    3. ___ All raptors have symmetrical ear openings

  5. Birds have different kinds of beaks depending on

    1. how it drinks
    2. how big it gets
    3. where it lives
    4. the kind of food it eats

  6. What two things might a bird have in its digestive system, which helps it to store and grind food?

    1. crop
    2. stem
    3. gizzard
    4. teeth

  7. What three traits make birds of prey different from other kinds of birds?

    1. feathers, wings, bones
    2. air sacs, crop, gizzard
    3. hooked beak, keen vision, sharp talons
    4. preen gland, pellets, warm-blooded

  8. The word raptor means to

    1. stop and eat
    2. stand and sleep
    3. seize and capture
    4. rest and hunt

  9. The third eyelid of a raptor that closes laterally across the eye and is transparent is called a

    1. nictitating membrane
    2. seeing membrane
    3. clear membrane
    4. lateral membrane

  10. When a raptor can see only one object at a time, it has what kind of vision?

    1. lateral
    2. binocular
    3. monocular
    4. none of them

  11. When a baby raptor grows its feathers and is able to fly and leave the nest, it is called a

    1. pledging
    2. fledgling
    3. sledging
    4. none of them

  12. The process a raptor goes through when it sheds its feathers before growing new ones is called

    1. shearing
    2. molting
    3. shedding
    4. none of them

check your answers

Quiz created by BLM Snake River Birds of Prey NCA staff, 1997. Boise, ID. The illustration of quiz © The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology by M. Brooke and T. Birkhead, 1991. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. Reproduced with permission.