I received the e-mail below this afternoon and thought I'd pass it on. In 1999, I ran across an interesting study on beak deformity in Alaskan black-capped chickadees. The deformity causes the beaks to grow extremely long and cross like the beak of a scissorbill. I started corresponding with Caroline Van Hemert at USGS, the study's author. She's a very interesting woman and has since found several other Alaskan birds with this same deformity, including corvids (crows, ravens, etc), hawks, flickers, pelicans, etc. In the past couple of years, these deformities have been found in birds in the Pacific Northwest. The cause of these beak deformities is not known and the range and type of birds with deformities seems to be growing. Last year, crows with beak deformities were reported at the Portland, OR, airport. Caroline's updated site is really informative. Since most of you are out of doors a lot, you might happen to see one of these birds. If you do, the site below has an online form with which you can report the bird. I know Caroline is interested in finding out how wide this anomoly has spread. Louise> > Caroline R Van > Hemert/BRD/USGS/D > OI@USGS To > > 05/30/2008 12:30 cc > PM > Subject > Beak Deformity Website Update > > Hello,> > As summer nears, we wanted to send out a big thank you for all of your help> in collecting beak deformity observation reports. We've had great response> to our online reporting system with more than 300 reports submitted and> continue to receive important information and photos from Alaska, the> Pacific Northwest, and around the world.> > We've also expanded our research to include Northwestern Crows and have> begun several new projects focused on Black-capped Chickadees. For more> information, please visit our recently-updated website (check out the new> "Photo Gallery" and "Current Research" links):> http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/landbirds/beak_deformity.> > Enjoy summer and thanks again for your assistance with this research!> > Caroline> > ****************************************************************> PLEASE NOTE NEW CONTACT INFORMATION:> > Caroline Van Hemert> Wildlife Biologist> USGS Alaska Science Center> 4210 University Dr.> Anchorage, AK 99508> Phone (907)786-7167> Fax (907)786-7021> cvanhem...@usgs.gov>
