A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term water bird is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabirds that inhabit marine environments. Some water birds are more terrestrial while others are more aquatic, and their adaptations will vary depending on their environment. These adaptations include webbed feet, beaks, and legs adapted to feed in the water, and the ability to dive from the surface or the air to catch prey in water.
Geese and ducks are just two types of water birds, which include seabirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, and numerous other forms of birds.
A yellow-billed loon, a diving bird in the order Gaviiformes, swimming on a lake in the northern area of Alaska, United States
The Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) has an enlarged throat pouch to aid it in feeding on schools of small fish. It is a member of the order Pelecaniformes, which also contains the herons, bitterns, and ibises
Pacific black ducks, one of the dabbling ducks, feeding in a wetland
A piscivore is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. The name piscivore is derived from Latin piscis 'fish', and vorō 'to devour'. Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution ; insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted reptiles and synapsids evolved herbivory.
Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) eating a catfish
An Atlantic puffin with a mouth full of lesser sand eels.
Specimen of Diplomystus swallowing another fish
