Tweeter folks--

Not the least of the beauties of David Attenborough's _Life of Birds_
series is the ingeniously revealing photography that shows those little
details that you might have wondered about.

I, for instance, have always had a hard time visualizing exactly how
Crossbills use their skewed bills to extract seeds from tight cones. But
last night's third episode of how birds eat showed a stunning closeup
sequence of a Red Crossbill prying into a green cone by thrusting the
upper mandible one way and the lower mandible the other. And then while
holding the cone open, the bird thrust its tongue in to retrieve the
seed. Now I can see precisely how the birds do it.

In light of our recent talk of Crossbills, both White-winged and Red, the
Attenborough photo sequence was timely. Look for other such revealing
sequences in the series.

--cheers, Jim Lyles