Bird Beaks

One obvious part of a bird is its beak. Different birds have different kinds of beaks to help them obtain food and are specialized to the type of diet the bird has. Welcome to Field Notes, I’m Rob MacDonald, a Wildlife Biologist with the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.

At a bird feeder, you usually see birds with short, strong beaks. These beaks are best for eating and cracking seeds and are found on sparrows, grosbeaks, chickadees, and other birds.

Perched on a tree along a creek, you see a kingfisher. His beak is long and spear-like for catching fish. Loons and terns also have this type of beak.

Our hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls have sharp hooked bills for tearing animal food. These beaks are very effective for consuming mice, rabbits, fish, and other birds that these raptors prey upon.

You may notice swallows and warblers catching insects in mid-air during the summer. Their slender bill with their wide mouth is very effective in their pursuit of food.

A long, pointed bill is well-designed for digging little animals out of the mud occurring around Bristol Bay and along lakes, rivers, or wetlands. This type of bill is characteristic of our shorebirds like western sandpipers and common snipe.

A robin and a rusty blackbird have strong, slender bills for probing for worms or picking up seeds.

The common ravens, black-billed magpies, gray jays, and some seabirds have heavy pointed beaks. These beaks are for all-purpose eating and includes mussel shells, eggs, and other scavenging foods.

As I’m sure you all know, ducks and swans have wide, flat bills. These bills are perfect for eating pond weeds and for sifting mud.

Another type of bill is more suited to geese. Geese have wedge-shapes bills for eating grasses and roots.

Finally, there are birds with stout hooked bills. These can be found on the gulls and many other seabirds of the area and are designed for catching and tearing fish and scavenged food.

For Field Notes, I’m Rob MacDonald.