[Maine-birds] Bill deformities

The talk lately about bill deformities reminds me of a crow we called Scoop, because it had no upper mandible (no facial bones distal to the nasals) or the bill covering usually present there.  The bird ate by thrusting the lower mandible bill forward along the ground or turning it's head inward and scooping food up with its tongue.  Once I even saw it carving out chunks of an apple with just the lower mandible and maneuvering same into its throat.  In late autumn, Scoop disappeared and I felt she had succumbed to colder weather and harder to find food.  But the next spring she was back, with a mate, and they raised 4 young birds (who were hilarious as they played in the bird bath.)  I say Scoop was a "she" because she was absent for longer periods of time during the incubation period.  She left with her brood the following autumn but never reappeared.  Living organisms are amazing in their ability to overcome difficulties, even those related to serious physical defects.  Scoop also taught us that the crows we have in winter are not the same crows as in the summer. 

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Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com

•The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.  - Albert Einstein

•In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -Martin Luther King

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