Look at this Bird's Beak!

This guy has been showing up at our feeder. He's obviously found a way to eat as he twists his head to pick up seeds... Very odd little critter.

We have a bird here called the curved-bill Thrasher, but this beak goes WAY beyond that! Has anyone seen a bird like this?

How bizarre, maybe he is trying to make a fashion statement for the lady birds.

By the way, awesome pictures. How did you manage to get so close and not frighten it off?

The gene pool over-floweth. This little guy got more than his fair share. Glad he adapted and can eat. Glad you feed him.

TY for the photos.....

Looks like a curved bill thrasher with an unusually long beak. They're also desert birds and you're in Canada, if I remember correctly so, I may be wrong but, he sure does look just like the bird type in your pics.

Curve-billed Thrasher

The Curve-billed Thrasher is generally 25 to 28 cm (10 to 12 inches) long, slender in build with a long tail, and a long, curved, sickle-shaped bill. It is pale grayish-brown above with lighter-colored underparts that are vaguely streaked. The tips of the tail are streaked with white, and the sides of the tail are a darker color than its back. The eye of an adult is usually a vivid orange or red-orange, although immature birds have a yellow eye.

The Curve-billed Thrasher is commonly found throughout the deserts and brush-filled areas of the south-western United States, from about the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and across New Mexico to west Texas, as well as most of Mexico, from the Sonoran-Chihuahuan Deserts and south through the Mexican Plateau to regions south of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in south-central Mexico.

Wiki

That is definitely a curve-billed thrasher with a bill deformity. (I took ornithology in college, a wildlife biology major) Check out this link:

www.rrbo.org...

reply to post by FortAnthem


Yes, we have curved bill thrashers and his yellow eye made me think he was one. But he's smaller than most we see. (I'm in New Mexico, not Canada, although I'd love to visit!) I suppose this irregularity could be associated with his size.

Someone on my dog board said that for some reason, he hasn't been trimming his beak, which is something wild birds usually do. Some captive birds have to have their beaks trimmed... Maybe this guy just has a birth defect or injury that prevents him from trimming his beak properly.

I have an email into a biologist friend of ours and I'm sure he'll have some input, too. I'll post back after I hear from him.

Thanks for the comments!

reply to post by mileysubet


I took these from the second story window of our living room. Zoomed in all the way.

This story just went conspiracy...

Deformed Beaks May Signal a Greater Environmental Problem

In birds affected by what scientists have termed “avian keratin disorder,” the keratin layer of the beak becomes overgrown, resulting in noticeably elongated and often crossed beaks, sometimes accompanied by abnormal skin, legs, feet, claws and feathers.
...
“The prevalence of these strange deformities is more than ten times what is normally expected in a wild bird population,” said research biologist Colleen Handel with the USGS, “We have seen effects not only on the birds’ survival rates, but also on their ability to reproduce and raise young. We are particularly concerned because we have not yet been able to determine the cause, despite testing for the most likely culprits.”

The disorder, which has increased dramatically over the past decade, affects 6.5 percent of adult Black-capped Chickadees in Alaska annually.

I found more pics of examples of birds with deformed beaks but none this 'bad"...

www.flickr.com...@N03/5386603212/lightbox/

Very Cool Pictures and a very cool bird. Looks like it has learned to adapt with what life dealt it, which is a very long beak. I wonder if the beak is very strong, or brittle towards the bottom, which could lead to breaking?