Yvonne <ravenn at premier1.net> asked;

" ... this bird has a piece of blue butterfly shaped plastic which goes
through its bill and is pinned in place. The widest ends of the plastic
sits in front of the birds eyes. Has anyone ever heard of this and if
so what is it for?"

from your description, it sounds as though this bird is an
escapee from someone's collection. i had always been told
by pheasant breeders that the plastic piece that you described
is affixed onto the bird to reduce/prevent them from
picking and pecking each other when living in confined areas.

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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