Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Flicker w/ deformed bill in Madrona.
Date: Tue Mar 27 20:55:49 PDT 2018
From: John Riegsecker - jriegsecker at pobox.com

I found an American Dipper with a mild case of this. The cause is being
investigated by a group in Alaska. You can report it here:

https://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/landbirds/beak_deformity/index.html

I have reported the Dipper, but have not heard back from them.


> Was just out for my lunchtime nature sketching at Al Larkins Park in

>

> Madrona and found a male Northern Flicker with a severely deformed bill.

>

> Both upper and lower mandible are curved opposite one another, with the

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> upper bill displaying a jagged edge. He was perched at the north end of the

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> park in the big maple near next to the red pine by a private residence.

>

>

>

> I can only imagine how this guy is surviving with a bill like this. It

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> probably helps that flickers mostly eat terrestrial ants lapped up from the

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> ground, but what about display drumming? This poor guy is probably on the

>

> bench.


John Riegsecker
Gig Harbor
jriegsecker at pobox dot com

--
John Riegsecker