Below is a list of jobs associated with each role.

• The Alpha birds are the dominant adult birds. They provide most of the care for the nestlings. Remember that there is always one Alpha Female and one Alpha Male at each nest.

• The Beta birds are subordinate adult birds. They hunt, protect the nest, and participate to a lesser degree in all nesting behavior. There may be more than one Beta male or female at each nest.

• The Gamma birds are juveniles, often remaining from the previous year.

Behavior	Alpha	Beta	Gamma
Participate in group hunts	+	+	+
Provide prey	+	+	+
Detect predators	+	+	+
Harass predators	+	+
Provide nest material	+	+
Build nest	+
Incubate, brood and shade nestlings	+
Feed nestlings	+

Science Education Connection Department of Biochemistry The University of Arizona Tuesday, January 14, 1997 warder@u.arizona.edu http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons/vuturo/ All contents copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.