Swimming Birds

Swimming Birds are delicate, higly specialized organisms. Eating only small fish, they would be in a precarious position were it not that their food source is one of the most abundant in the ecosystem. Roosting in the various low trees that dot the swamp in clumps, they leave their refuge only to hunt. Couples mate for life, and being unsuited for long range flight, they usually spend their entire lives in one nest. They are perfectly adapted to a life of fishing. Their keen eyesight allows them to spot fish in any conditions. Their dive is extremely fast and, even if they do not catch the fish on the initial plunge, their webbed feet, similiar to those of a duck, help to keep the momentum of their dive and propel themselves underwater faster than most fish. Their beak is long and thin - ideally suited for spearing fish. Their feathers are extremely oily, which prevents them fom getting waterlogged.

Though fed upon by Alligator Snakes, and of course, beatles and rodents, swimming birds do not solely constitute the diet of any organism. Thus their extinction would have arguably the smallest effect on the system of any of the species. They do help to keep the fish population in check, but enough other species are also fish-eating to do the job adequately. Birds are probably in the most danger as well. Like cheetahs, they are so highly specialized that the smallest change in their environment could be disasterous, as they are suited only for one exact lifestyle.