Washington hawk-bander Bud Anderson gave a presentation last night in
Portland on the subject of bill deformities. He is concerned about the
alarming increase in such bill deformities in various species, especially in
Red-tailed Hawks, but in a wide variety of other raptors as well. He had
photos of birds from various other groups, such as Black-capped Chickadees
with long curved bills. He also showed the photo of the mounted specimen of
Ivory-billed Woodpecker that was collected in Cuba (1848 as I recall). He
indicated that several of the Red-tailed Hawks near the Sea-Tac Airport are
suffering from the condition.

One theory is that the deformities are increasing and that the cause may be
a virus. That is complete speculation at this point.

I have seen the syndrome in Glaucous-winged Gulls and one Western Sandpiper.

See the website below regarding this subject.

Jeff Gilligan, Portland.



Subject: [obol] Long-billed hawk syndrome



For those who would like more information about long-billed hawk/bird
syndrome, the Web site for the Falcon Research Group is:
http://www.frg.org/frg/index.html

Bud Anderson's presentation at last night's Birders Night in Portland
was an eye-opener for those of us who are not familiar with these
recently-discovered anomalies. Bud's email address is given on the
Falcon Research Group's Web site.

oschmidt at att.net
Wednesday, May 3, 2006


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