Most members of the Charadriiformes are clearly recognizable as belonging to a particular suborder. Major structural variations occur in the beak and legs, correlated with the mode of feeding and size of food.
Adaptations for flight
Gulls, terns, and skimmers have long, narrow wings, low wing loadings (the ratio of weight to wing area), slow wing beat rates and flight speeds, and moderately developed flight muscles. Alcids, on the other hand, have proportionately shorter wings, high wing loadings, rapid wing beat rates and greater speed (45–55 miles per hour), and large flight muscles. Their wing bones are flattened in adaptation to underwater “flight.” The shorebirds lie between the other suborders in flight adaptations; their wings are not adapted for soaring, but they are strong fliers and cover great distances in continuous flight.
The evolution of the wing in the Alcidae has been influenced by the fact that it serves both as an aquatic paddle and as an aerial wing. The wing is partly folded underwater, reducing its area and increasing its mechanical advantage. It is used not to provide lift but to propel the bird in pursuit of prey. To support a bird in air, however, a wing must be larger than the optimum paddle size. This is especially critical in large birds, as body weight is proportional to the cube of linear dimensions and wing area to the square. Body size and flying ability are therefore limited by the need for a small effective paddle. In flightless aquatic species the wing can be relatively small and the bird much larger, as in the great auk and in penguins.
Molt
Most Charadriiformes have two molts between breeding periods, which are on an annual cycle in all except some populations of the sooty tern (Sterna fuscata). A partial body molt generally precedes breeding, and a complete molt follows breeding. In some species flight feathers of the wing and tail are molted before the fall migration; in others they are retained through the fall migration and molted on the wintering grounds. Still other species stop along the migration route to molt. The ruff (Philomachus pugnax) is exceptional in having one complete and two partial molts between breeding cycles.
Major flight feathers of most species are lost gradually and in sequence so that flight is not impaired. Flight feathers of the wing in most Alcidae, however, are molted simultaneously after breeding, with temporary loss of flight but no hindrance to underwater locomotion. One jacana (Actophilornis) is also flightless for a brief period.
Adaptations for feeding
As in other birds, the upper jaw as well as the lower jaw can be moved up and down. The lower jaw has special regions of flexibility enabling it to be widened by bowing outward and allowing passage of large prey into the throat in Lari and Alcae.
The shape of the bill varies greatly within the order, in accordance with special feeding methods. The hooked tip in gulls and jaegers facilitates grasping and tearing of food, which cannot be managed by the straight-billed terns. Some species such as the Atlantic puffin, rhinoceros auklet, and fairy tern are able to carry several fish crosswise in the bill while capturing still more. They do this by holding the fish against the roof of the upper jaw with the spiny tongue. The shorebirds exhibit a wide variety of bill types. Most bills in this group are long and slender, and straight or curved up or down. In the Scolopacidae the bill is usually slender and flexible, but in the Charadriidae it is somewhat stouter and less flexible, often slightly swollen at the tip. Among the specialized probers (sandpipers, snipe, and allies) the upper jaw is rigidly attached to the cranium and has a mobile tip with a concentration of tactile sense organs under the rhamphotheca (the horny covering of the beak). The tip of the upper jaw is controlled by jaw muscles and serves to grasp worms or larvae underground and to inch them along the bill before swallowing.
In one plover (the wrybill, Anarhynchus frontalis) the bill curves to the right; in the spoonbilled sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) the tip of the bill is broad and spatulate. Oystercatchers have laterally flattened bills, with the tips forming a vertical blade. Seedsnipe have short, conical bills not unlike those of sparrows. Pratincoles have short bills and wide mouths, like those of swallows and swifts.
The Lari show few bizarre modifications of the bill, feathers, or feet. One oddity is the bill of skimmers, in which the upper mandible is streamlined in cross section and laterally compressed. The lower mandible is knifelike and protrudes well beyond the upper. The sharp upper edge of the lower mandible fits into a groove in the upper when the bill is closed.
Many alcids acquire bill ornamentation or head plumes during the breeding season. The functions of elaborate bill modifications are poorly understood but are believed to involve courtship and species recognition. The highly coloured plates on the bills of puffins (Lunda and Fratercula) are shed when the birds molt following the breeding season. In alcids that feed on zooplankton (tiny, free-floating animals), such as the least auklet (Aethia pusilla) and the dovekie or little auk (Plautus alle), the bill is relatively wide, the tongue large and fleshy, the palate broad with numerous horny projections, and the throat provided with an expandable pouch.
Many charadriiform birds drink salt water. The ionic balance of their blood is maintained not only by the kidneys but by supraorbital glands (called nasal or salt glands) that lie in grooves in the skull over the eyes, discharging their salty excretion through the nostrils.
Evolution and paleontology
Charadriiform birds diverged long ago, probably in the late Cretaceous Period, from the ancestors of modern gruiform birds. The subsequent diversification of form and function within and between the major groups—waders, gulls, and auks—highlights the adaptive flexibility of the bird body. Charadriiforms are represented richly in the fossil record of the Paleogene and Neogene periods (66 million–2.6 million years ago).
The earliest of the auklike birds known at present were members of the alcid subfamily Nautilornithinae from the Eocene of Utah. Represented by wing and leg bones, these birds are inferred to have had longer limbs than present forms and to have been less well adapted for flight underwater than are contemporary species. Fascinating finds from the Pliocene Epoch (some 5 million years ago) are some very flattened wing bones (humeri) that exhibit features at both ends resembling those of penguins. These birds, the Mancallinae, were undoubtedly flightless and more specialized for underwater wing propulsion than was the now extinct great auk.
Modern families probably had their origins in Paleocene times or earlier, and many modern genera were well represented by the Oligocene and Miocene epochs (33.9–5.3 million years ago). Modern species date chiefly from the Pleistocene Epoch (beginning about 2.6 million years ago), and many facts concerning the distribution and differentiation of northern subspecies and species are explainable in terms of isolation during the periods of Pleistocene glaciation.