Starling, Wanna be Curlew

[gobbiner]

This was on Southport beach today, im not sure how it eats, has anyone any idead whats happened here

[gobbiner]

Surely this isnt so common that it doesnt warrant a reply

[Lance Morgan]

Starling with a deformed beak, surprisingly they seem to manage very well

[gobbiner]

Originally Posted by Lance Morgan

Starling with a deformed beak, surprisingly they seem to manage very well

Have you seen it before Lance

[Amoeba]

Wannabe curlew, lol.

I've been hearing 'curlews' all around the scheme lately and it turns out it's just the copy-cat starlings.

Now this one comes along looking and acting like a curlew...

[thebeard]

taking mimicry to a new level!

I'd be surprised if many people had seen this before, though deformities in beaks is reasonably common, although very localised. often the birds don't survive for long, but some seem to be able to adapt pretty well to it. this starling is very weird indeed!

[Lance Morgan]

Originally Posted by gobbiner

Have you seen it before Lance

Hi yes in starlings and tits. There have been other threads as well about it.

[valleyforge]

Interesting observation and pics, gobbiner.

Over-growths in bird beaks don't seem to be that uncommon, but often only one mandible (upper or lower) is affected, and more often than not in my experience it is a temporary condition as the bird can often 'snap back' the overgrowth so that the mandibles are again equally and normally sized. Until they can do that of course, normal feeding is often a little problematic (depending on species), but usually not impossible.

When both upper and lower mandibles are overgrown as in this case, the bird has a much bigger problem in that it becomes that much harder ... if not impossible ... to break the overgrowths back to an acceptable level.

I've only ever seen such a severe double mandible overgrowth such as this in a blue tit, which seemed to be coping well enough with feeding at a wire mesh peanut feeder ... but it was only seen around for 2 days, so unless it managed to trim back its beak, I strongly suspect it didn't survive.

The main problem for this starling is that, unlike a curlew, chances are his tongue is not as elongated as his beak. Being of above average smartness for a bird however, this starling may have discovered that he/she has more chance of getting a meal down its throat if it prods its beak into soft ground, such as sand, so that anything it catches is pushed within reach of its tongue, and so may be swallowed.

That kind of thinking also then raises the question of what might have come first in the evolution of the curlew ... a long beak in order to better prod into soft sand and earth ... or that method of feeding because it had evolved a long beak?