Birds & Beaks

Bird's beaks are actually multifunctional tools (like human hands), which they use to attack, defend, gather food, groom and build nests for themselves. Apart from this, the beak is also used to find, prepare and swallow their food, so the shape is suited to the kind of food the bird eats.

A beak is basically just a bony elongation of the skull. It is covered with a thin skin that produces Keratin (which is the same substance found in our nails and hair). It is the Keratin that forms the beak's hard, glossy outer covering. But since a bird does not have teeth, its beak is differing according to its eating habits. For instance, the wood pecker's beak is chisel-shaped and very strong for drilling holes in to trees in order to feed and build nests. However, eagle, owls and shrikes all eat other animal flesh. They need strong hooked beaks to help tear up their pray so they can swallow it. Parrots also have strong hooked beaks, much more rounded than that of the hawks. The beak is some time used to tear apart animal flesh, but is also used a lever to dig out seeds from large, tough fruits. Insect eating birds - warblers, starlings and wrens usually have medium-long, often slightly hooked beaks.

Humming birds need their long needle like beaks for pocking deep into the flowers for nectar. Toucans and hornbills, tropical birds have with big, swollen beaks. They live mainly on soft pulpy fruits. The Whippoorwills and Night hawks have rather weak beaks. Their beaks are so wide that they spread from one side of the broad head to the other. These birds fly through the air with their mouth open, scooping up the flying insects. If however, a bird does need not to chew, the process is carried out with the help of the gizzard, or the bird's second stomach. Beaks which are wide at the base and flat shaped are found in birds which catch insects in flight, such as Flycatchers. These birds also often have "whiskers," which are really customized feathers, at the corners of the mouth, which efficiently widens the mouth opening, allowing more efficient capture of prey.

In fact, some birds are known to swallow small pebbles in order to help their stomach break down the food. But feeding is not the only reason for the shape of a bird's beak. Bird's beaks are actually multifunctional tools, which birds use to attack, defend, groom or build nests for themselves. In short birds also use their beaks in order to adapt to their specific living conditions.

Finches have conical beaks which they use to crack open seeds. Ducks have beaks that are fringed-used to strain out mud and water from their food. Herons have beaks that are shaped rather like knife in order to spear fish out of the water. All these birds are live in various and in very deferent situations, so it is no wonder that their beaks are evolved in order to help them. Chickens and their relatives, the grouse and pheasants, need strong, short pointed beaks to pick their food out of the ground. Water birds have many different shaped beaks because they eat many different kind of food, including fish, snails, clams, water weeds, tiny shrimps and worms. Their beaks are long so they may reach under water easily and poke into soft mud and sand. The spoon bills, flamingos, pelicans and ducks each have beaks adapted to the needs for staining out water, mud or sand or catching slippery food.

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The Toucan's extra-large, colorful beak has made it one of the world's most admired birds. The giant beak, which measures more than half the length of the body, is the trademark of toucans. The beak has forward-facing serrations like teeth, which traditionally led researchers to believe that toucans captured fish and were predominantly carnivorous; today it is known that they eat generally fruit. In addition to fruit, Toco toucans eat insects and, at times, young birds, eggs, or lizards. Researchers have exposed that the large beak of the toucan is a very efficient thermo regulation system, though its size may still be useful in other ways. The large beak does aid in their feeding behavior, and it has also been imagined that the beak may frighten smaller birds, so that the toucan may loot nests without interruption. In addition, the beak allows the bird to reach deep into tree-holes to access food unavailable to other birds, and also to turn upside down suspended nests built by smaller birds. These iconic birds are well-liked pets, and many are captured to supply demand for this trade.

When we spell "Cuckoos", we are no doubt reminds of the sweet-sounding double note of the cuckoo's. The cuckoos owes its peculiarity especially to its brood partism, its habits of placing eggs in the nets of other birds and making them raise its young cuckoos (family cuculidae) occupy an exceptional position. The length 14 to 70cm and weight is 25 to 1000g. The beak curved downward slightly with protruding hook at the tip of the upper mandible and a deep cleft to the beak. Most Cuckoos have medium to long wings and they have two toes pointing backwards and two toes pointing forwards (zygodactylous feet). Many Cuckoos, specifically the parasitic ones are bashful retiring birds not often seen.

Sparrows are social birds, nesting closely to one another and flying and feeding in small flocks. The sparrows, numbering almost 400 different kinds, all eat seeds of plants. Most seeds have a hard cover, so a sparrow must have a beak that can, crush and eat seeds. The sparrows do this with their short, thick, wedge shaped beaks. Sparrows with large beaks, called grosbeaks, eat large hard shelled seeds. There is one sparrow called 'cross bill' because the ends of its beak cross each other when the beak is closed. It can spread the scales of a pair or spruce cone and pull out the seed with its tongue. They live in nests, nests are located under roofs, bridges, in the hollows etc.

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Owls are an order distinctly set off from other bird kind. They are recognized immediately by their large head, their forward directed eyes, their small curved beaks, the seaming absence of a neck, and their very soft plumage. Owls are birds of prey which grasp and kill live prey have sharp and hooked beaks. These beaks are employed to bite the skull or neck and also to tear the preys' body into tiny pieces small enough to swallow. The beak of the owl is drawn down steeply, making it appear small. The cere is concealed by bristles at the base of the beak. The upper mandible is hooked.

Most young owls are not yet fully volitant when they leave the brood site, so they often end up on the ground. If a human approaches, they first draw themselves in, but soon assume a threat posture and snap with their beaks. More over, these young owls, as a rule, already know quite well how to climb with the aid of the beaks and their wings. The scops owls (Otus) are relatively small owls with a maximum length of 28 cms.

Most of them have erectile ear-tufts and short rounded wings. Sound is significant to owls, particularly in mating and territorial defense. Cover-up, daytime immobility, and silent flight may merge to make it as complicated for owls to see each other as it is for natural enemies and human viewers to see them. The song differs from deep hoots in some large species to chips, whistles, or warbling in many small owls.

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One of the most clearly characterized, most sharply defined, and most homogeneous families among birds are the Hummingbirds. Most experts think the average lifespan of a hummer is 3 or 4 years. Hummingbirds have long, tubular bills that look like straws, which they utilize to sip nectar from flowers. In the adult bird the beak is usually long, narrow, tube shaped, straight or curved, and very thin throughout its length. This beak of the nestlings is at first rather short, the opening is narrow and the salivary glands are small. The tongue is long and divided. In the nectar sucking humming bird the cornna of the hyoid bone are fully extended from the sheath of the tongue. When beak is closed they reach as far back as the nose cavity under the pericranium. The largest, the Giant Hummingbird, has a wingbeat rate of 10-15 per second and the fastest registered rate was about 80 per second.

Spoonbills are monogamous, but, so far as is known, only for one season at a time. Most variety nest in trees or reed-beds, often with ibises or herons. The male assembles nesting material-mostly sticks and reeds, sometimes taken from an old nest-the female weaves it into a large, shallow bowl or platform which varies in its shape and structural integrity according to species. The female lays a clutch of about 3 smooth, oval, white eggs and both parents incubate; chicks hatch one at a time rather than all together. The newly-hatched young are blind and cannot care for themselves instantaneously; both parents feed them by partial regurgitation. Chicks' beaks are short and straight, and only gain the characteristic spoonbill shape as they mature. Their feeding continues for a few weeks longer after the family leaves the nest. The main cause of brood failure appears not to be predation but starvation.

All have large, flat, spatulate beaks and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly-opened beak from side to side. The moment any small aquatic creature touches the inside of the beak-an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish-it is snapped shut. Spoonbills generally prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. They need to feed many hours each day.

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Most species possess principally white, black and brown, green and red plumage, although many piculets show a certain amount of grey and olive green. In woodpeckers, many variety exhibit patches of red and yellow on their heads and bellies, and these bright areas are important in signaling. The dark areas of plumage are often glistening. Although the sexes of Picidae species tend to look alike, many woodpecker species have more outstanding red or yellow head markings in males than in females.

Members of the family Picidae have strong beaks for drilling and drumming on trees and long sticky tongues for pulling out food. Woodpecker beaks are naturally longer, sharper and stronger than the beaks of piculets and wrynecks; however their morphology is very similar. The woodpecker uses its beak like a drill to bore holes in to bark of the trees so that it can get at the insects. The beak's chisel-like tip is kept sharp by the pecking action in birds that regularly use it on wood. Species of woodpecker and flicker that use their beaks in soil or for probing as opposed to regular hammering tend to have longer and more warranted beaks. Due to their smaller bill size, many piculets and wrynecks will forage in decaying wood more often than woodpeckers. The long sticky tongues, which possess bristles, aid these birds in grabbing and extracting insects deep within a hole of a tree.

As is the case with many birds of prey, falcons are renowned for their exceptional powers of vision; one species has been found to have a visual acuity of 2.6 times that of a normal human. Adult falcons have thin tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and to change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers which makes their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broadwing. This is to make it easier for them to fly while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters in their adult configuration. A falcon's wings are shaped like a scythe. Common misconceptions of the difference of a scythe and sickle are the cause of the misconception of the shape of the falcon's wings. Its beaks are sharp and hooked to felicitate to tear up the flesh of their pray. The flight of falcons is speedy and direct with the wings quickly digging through the air. Some falcons normally hover while scanning the ground for quarry. Some species capture birds of their own size or smaller in airborne. Others live mostly on hares, mice, lizards, and insects.

The Whistling Heron is named for its most familiar call, 'a distinctive, characteristic, melodious whistle. It may also give "a slow, drawn-out whistle" when begin to fly.Whistling Heron's distinctive call is a whistle given in flight. It also voice a flute-like "kleeer-er", habitually repeated twice or in series. This whistling sound gives the bird its name. This whistling herons is bigger in size but has a shorter beak in proportion to the body. The beak is pink with blue to violet at the bottom and the distal third black and a fairly big area of bare bluish skin around the eye. As other herons, it stands up frozen, waiting for prey. It also walks unhurriedly on the shore or in shallow water, or runs with head and neck low. This species eats any tiny dryland and marsh animals it can catch. It may allow human being to come near fairly closely rather than leave a good feeding spot.

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Kingfisher is a small to medium sized vibrantly colored bird in the order Coraciiformes. For the most part of species are tropical in distribution, and a thin majority are found only in forests. There are approximately 90 varieties of Kingfishers. All have bulky heads, lengthy, short legs, and thick tails. They eat a wide range of prey as well as fish, mostly caught by swooping down from a perch. The Kingfishers have a long, dagger-like beak. The beak is generally longer and more compressed in species that hunt fish, and shorter and broad in species that hunt prey off the land. The largest and most different beak is that of the Shovel-beaked Kookaburra, which is used to mine through the floor in search of prey.

The Kingfishers have admirable vision; they are proficient of binocular vision and are thought in unique to have good color vision. African Dwarf Kingfisher is the smallest variety of kingfisher, which averages at 10.4 g and 10 cm. The Giant Kingfisher is the largest variety, at an average of 355 g (13.5 oz) and 45 cm.

Photo Credit: Opencage.info

Swan, common name for a large aquatic bird, related to ducks and geese. Swans are often measured symbols of devotion and loyalty because they are monogamous. It has a long, elegantly curved neck and an enormously long trachea which makes possible its far-carrying calls. The swans are the biggest members of the duck family 'Anatidae', and are among the largest flying birds. Among waterfowl, swans are the biggest and fastest, both swimming and flying; at about 23 kgs, the mute swan is the heaviest flying bird. Their wingspans can be almost 3 m (10 ft). The orange-beaked white trumpeter swan, Cygnus buccinator, are seen in parks. Although most birds commonly do not have teeth, swans are known to be an exemption to this, having small jagged 'teeth' as part of their beaks used for catching and eating fish. They swim well but cannot dive and therefore feed only in shallow waters. They eat aquatic and littoral plants and sometimes aquatic invertebrates. Their graceful form when swimming has made swans emblems of beauty for centuries. Swans are long necked and web-footed. The Mute Swan is an all white bird with a pink beak that ends in a black knob. The beak of a swan is so sensitive that it acts as an underwater feeler.

The Kagu or Cagou is the only existing member of the genus Rhynochetos. It is a crested, long-legged, and bluish-grey bird prevalent to the thick mountain forests of New Caledonia. More or less flightless, it spends its time on or near the soil, where it hunts its invertebrate prey, and assembles a nest of sticks on the floor of the forest. Its 'Beaks' are a unique feature not shared with any other bird. The Kagu is nourishing on a variety of animals with annelid worms, snails and lizards being amongst the most main prey items. The greater component of the diet is acquired from the leaf litter or soil, with other prey stuff found in vegetation, old logs and rocks. If digging is compulsory to obtain the prey this is done with the long sharp beaks, the feet are not used to dig or scratch away debris.

Sooty Tern is a seabird of the tern family (Sternidae). It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. It is also known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake. The Sooty Tern has slight inter-specific difference, but it can be separated into two subspecies. The wings and acutely forked tail of this bird are long, and it has dark black upper parts and white under parts. It has black legs and sharp, black medium beaks. Under parts are light grey in fresh plumage, dreary white in worn plumage. The Sooty Tern Breeds from Red Sea across Indian Ocean to at least Central Pacific.

The Bald Eagle is a wonderful bird of prey. This eagle's head is not really 'bald', it just has white feathers on its head. The source of the name "bald" is from an outdated English word meaning white. Female bald eagles are a bit bigger than male species. Bodies of bald eagle can be 1 meter long, and their wingspan can be 2.4 meters across. Just imagine, about the distance from the floor to the ceiling! The body of an adult Bald Eagle is evenly brown with a white head and tail. The feet and irides are dazzling yellow. Bald eagles have a long, downward-curving yellow beak. These eagles use their beak to take away indigestible feathers or fur before intake a larger animal. They eat small size prey in whole and vomit the indigestible parts (like hair, feathers, and bone). Its diet includes mostly of fish, but it is an opportunistic feeder. It hunts fish by diving down and grasping the fish out of the water with its talons. They can fly over 3,048 meters high, and their remarkable eyesight lets them see a fish up 1.6 kilometers away.

The Shoebill, called "Whale-headed Stork" in some older literature, is a matchless bird of uncertain resemblance. Long in the leg and broad in the wing, standing well nearly a metre high and dressed completely in dull, scaly grey, the Shoebill is dominated by its beaks, a huge and powerful attachment ending in a wild nail-like hook. Shoebill is a tall bird, native of eastern tropical Africa, having slaty plumage, lengthy black legs, a stumpy neck, and a large shoe like beak with a hook on the upper mandible. The Arabs called it as 'Abu Markub' - which means one with a shoe, a reference to the bird's unique beak. Nine inches long and four inches broad (23 x 10 cm), the beak is definitely big enough to serve as a clog for the normal human foot. At any rate, 'Shoebill' has steadily gained pre-eminence as the name for one of the most exhilarating and sought-after of all the birds of the Africa. The population is expected at between 5,000 and 8,000 individuals, the greater part of which live in Sudan. Bird Life International has classified shoebill as helpless with the main threats being habitat destruction, disturbance and hunting.

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The Woodcock is a medium-small bird found in temperate and subarctic parts of Eurasia. It has mystifying camouflage to suit its woodland environment, including reddish-brown upper-parts and beige colored under-parts. The woodcock has actually a strange beak which it uses to feel and search for earthworms. The top half of the woodcock's beak bends and is vulnerable to touch. The wings are rounded and the base of the beak is flesh-colored with a shadowy tip. Its eyes are set far back on its head to give it 360-degree eyesight and it searches in the ground for food with its long, sensitive beak, making it helpless to cold weather when the ground remains icy.

The Kiwi is the only survivor of a very old order of birds including the now wiped out Moas. It is a flightless bird about the size of a domestic fowl; the kiwi has rough, bristly, hair-like feathers. Males are smaller than females. Kiwi has a well developed sense of smell. Abnormal in a bird, and are the only birds with nostrils at the end of their lengthy beaks. Kiwi eats small invertebrates, seeds, grubs, and many types of worms, fruits, small crayfish, eels and amphibians. For the reason that their nostrils are located at the end of their long beaks, Kiwi can trace insects and worms underground without seeing or feeling them, due to their sharp sense of smell.

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Kookaburra, known as the Laughing bird, is from the kingfisher family. The Kookaburra's rolling, laughing call is one of the greatest -known sounds in the animal world. Kookaburras have a tubby and compact body, small neck, rather lengthy and pointed beaks and short legs. The strong beaks are black. There is a dark band of color through the eye, and the under parts are white. Kookaburras dwell in woodland areas of eastern and south western Australia. They are generally not closely related with water, and can be found in surroundings ranging from humid forest to arid savanna, but also in suburban and residential areas near running water and where food can be searched without problems.

Crows live in considerable, close knit families, and like social mammals, they not only search and feed together but also protect their living areas and care for the young together. These silky black birds found in most parts of the world, with the exemption of some parts of South America. Crows are normally smaller and not as thick beaks of ravens, which belong to the same genus. The beak of the Crow is stouter and in outcome looks shorter, and whereas in the adult Rook the nostrils are bare, those of the Crow are enclosed with bristle-like feathers. For a Crow, the beak, legs and feet are also black. Recent study has found some crow species talented not only of tool use but of tool creation as well. Crows are now measured to be among the world's most intelligent animals.

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