Good evening all,
How about two Great Knot and a
Black-tailed Godwit!?!
Mark
From:
Steve Holliday [
Sent: Thursday, 7 January 2010
12:51 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds]
Deformed Godwit beak
Hi Denis
Not a deformity
– a flexible upper mandible is found in many waders. A message on
Birding-Aus alerted me to this excellent webpage http://www.sunbittern.com/gallery-rhynchokinesis.html
discussing this ability.
Anyone like to
identify the other two wader species in the original photo?
cheers
Steve
From:
Denis Wilson [
Sent: Wednesday, 6 January 2010 1:23
AM
To: COG bird discussions
Subject: [canberrabirds] Deformed
Godwit beak
Sorry that this is NOT a local issue, but
can anyone explain what is happening with the bird featured in a North
Queensland Birder's Blog?
The upper mandible is clearly bent upwards, away
from the lower mandible.
How could it possibly probe into the mud, in the
normal manner?
As they are migratory birds, I cannot imagine
how this bird survived for the period of time required to travel around the Pacific Ocean, if it is a genetic deformity?
The author claims to have seen this several
times, but does not document that claim.
