Birdchick Blog
Someone posted photos on MnBird of a female pileated woodpecker at the Minnesota Zoo. Check out her bill in this photo and this photo--it's crazy long! I wonder if it's a result of the bill not being worn down enough in captivity or if it's part of the larger bird bill deformity problem?
Here is a link to a photo I took of a female pileated--note how much shorter her bill is compare to the bird in the zoo.
Speaking of pileateds, here is a video I got of Mr. Neil's pileated eating cashew suet:
Hey, did you guys see the nuthatch with the deformed bill over at Mary's View?
I've encountered some long-billed birds before, we had a peregrine come into the hawk blind a few years ago and I saw some deformed red-winged blackbirds in 2006 in Nebraska too. If you see long-billed birds you can report them to either Julie Craves or Cornell.
This goldfinch has little black feathers on his head--signs of his black cap he will have in breeding plumage. Now here is the question for the goldfinch: is he slow at molting, is this left over from last summer or is this a hint of what is to come? Is he starting his breeding plumage changeover all ready?
Speaking of signs of spring, this morning, even though it was -5 degrees F, black-capped chickadees were singing "Spring Soon!" The birds must be feeling like the glass is half full or they have read The Secret and are just trying to will the weather to be warmer.
Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure I will be leaving tomorrow morning with the predicted record snowfall that's supposed to start in earnest around 9pm tonight. Traffic was more than a little slow at the booth today. I think many people left early to try and get home before the big storm hits tonight. This morning there was a layer of ice and about two to three inches of snow. The main highway was not plowed, so instead of going the posted 75 mph, I went 30! The gravel road to Rowe Sanctuary wasn't plowed at all and I was beginning to wish that I had rented that SUB instead of the lower riding Stratus, but I made it there and back in one piece. I'm half heartedly packing, think that there isn't much chance that I will be able to drive to Minnesota tomorrow. On the bright side, the cranes look beautiful in the snowy landscape (but there is no way I can photograph them in the ice that pelts you and stings like a sand storm when you are outside).
Today while demonstrating some digiscoping, I noticed two long billed male red-winged blackbirds feeding on the ground at Rowe Sanctuary. Early readers of this blog may remember the long billed peregrine we got in at the banding station in Duluth, MN. Not long after I posted that entry, I got in contact with Bud Anderson who has been tracking what he calls the long billed hawk syndrome. This is also prevalent in passerines as well and I found that Julie Craves at Rouge River Bird Observatory is compiling deformities as is Colleen Handel.
There is so much we're learning but so little we don't know. Part of me was excited when I saw the birds, realizing that this is part of a great mystery, but then I felt sad that this a problem that we don't know the answer to and these birds are going to have a rough go of it as their bills continue to grow. A friend had given me a copy of Bud's PowerPoint Presentation on the long-billed hawk syndrome so I showed some of the examples of birds to the staff at Rowe Sanctuary, there was even a photo of a male red-winged black bird looking just like the blackbirds in my photos.
If you see a long-billed bird, please report it to Bud at bud@frg.org.
Bud Anderson sent me this photo of a red-tailed hawk with a deformed bill found in San Jose, CA.
Last month I posted a photo of a peregrine falcon with an overgrown bill that we got in at a hawk banding station in Duluth, MN. To all of us at the banding station, it looked like the bird had possibly flown into something and the bill became overgrown as a result. Not long after the photo was up I started getting emails from around the country about birds with bill deformities. I recalled a few years ago hearing about chickadees with deformed and overgrown bills showing up on Project Feeder Watch reports but didn't think anything more about it until the last month. This is an occurance that is being closely monitored. Many of the birds found with the elongated bills are in Alaska. The peregrine in our nets could have been from Alaska, it's tough to say, but the bird was a tundrius subspecies of peregrine. Here's a link to an article by Michael Hopkin of Bio Ed Online about the bill deformities. You can also read more about it at Boreal Partners in Flight and at Project Feeder Watch through Cornell University.
Okay, so several photos will be showing up on here from hawk trapping in the next few days after Amber and I start swapping, but I forgot to post the peregrine falcon with a a weird bill photo:
Who knows what happened to this bird. The injury to the lower mandible looks like it broke long ago and healed at an odd angle. Because of this the top mandible didn't get worn down as it should have and became overgrown. My personal theory is that the bird probably flew into something like a building when learning to fly or chasing after prey. Looking closey at the falcon you could make out a line on the lower mandible where it had been bent back. The bird still managed to feed as the injury healed which is a testament to how well birds get on, even at times without human intervention.
This peregrine was banded and released as is.