Hi tweeters,

yesterday, I saw a weird Crow, with a hook-like bill (let's call this
guy _Corvus caurinus paulsoni_).
The hook is not as pronounced as a Snail Kite, but still it's pretty
hooked.

He was on a gamefield with some others (regular) corvid pals.
I looked at it for five minutes, because I was just curious how it could
feed with such a non-crow beak.
It quickly caught an earthworm, but I didn't manage to see how.
I also saw it feeding on some garbage this morning.

I've seen a Herring Gull _Larus argentatus_ with a hook-like bill in
France a couple of years ago. It spent a couple of weeks in winter on a
gamefield (hmmm, some correlations here ?).

Is this a common "accident" in birds ?
How is the survival rate of such mutants ? "My" guy seems to be able to feed
at the moment, but will that be the case in a few months ?

--
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A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand.

Serge Le Huitouze Intelligent Software Group
email: serge at cs.sfu.ca School of Computing Science
tel: (604) 291-5423 Simon Fraser University
fax: (604) 291-3045 Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6 CANADA