07 Saturday Nov 2020
Posted in birds
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bird with deformed beak, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Herring gull, Herring gull with deformed beak, juvenile Herring gull
This juvenile Herring gull that I spotted amongst the gull flock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park a couple of days ago had an interesting beak deformity. Presumably it can eat okay and it was preening but still looked scruffy, so I guess the twisted beak doesn’t work well for grooming.
19 Thursday Mar 2020
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bird with deformed beak, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cogan Wood, European nuthatch, nuthatch, Nuthatch with deformed beak
During a recent wander through Cogan Wood, after a spell of nasty weather, I was dishing out sunflower seeds to all the small birds, the tits and Robins and assorted others, when I noticed this Nuthatch with an elongated and twisted beak. The deformity wasn’t stopping it feeding or carting away and stashing two or three seeds at a time.
October 2017, the twist is not very pronounced
I had a nagging feeling that I’d seen the bird before and, sure enough, when I checked my photos, I had images from two previous sightings, the first in October 2017, the second just a couple of months ago, in January 2020, always in the same spot in the wood. The twist was minor in the first photo but appears to have got worse as the beak has grown longer.
January 2020
Apparently, the Nuthatch lives about three years on average. Obviously, I don’t know how old this particular bird was when I first saw it but it will be interesting to keep an eye out for it to see how long it manages to survive. I hope it lives long and prospers!
March 2020