CountingCrows: Birds with abnormalities

USGS' version of this flyer does not turn out well on my printer because it has a gray background so I tried to remove it. Original can be found following any one of the links below then looking at site map

Flyer is from the USGS Beak Deformities "How You Can Help site and is not copyrighted by me (stating the obvious here). They encourage you to distribute the flyer in your community. This is my backup copy for when my pc inevitably breaks down - removing the gray background was a royal pain and I do not intend to do it again. Ever.

USGS provides a recipe for nutritious Birdie Corn Bread. and building plans for a nest box to entice chickadees or nuthatches into your neighborhood

Photo taken 5/11/2009 in Seward, location unknown - probably the oasis or South SWP.

Dom Max has a slight indentation on the top left side of his head . His maxilla is elongated and curved. Not twisted ( that I have recognized anyway). He is comfortable with people and will cautiously take food from a person's hand (not just mine). He is demanding and will tap on my windshield to get my attention if I am tossing food and not handing him as much or as often as he thinks I should - he has narcissistic delusions of entitlement lol. Actually it would not surprise me if he could count. He does not demand I give him something every time but if I have tossed out enough for him to feel overlooked he will remind me. He can be quite aggressive when other crows get near when he is eating. He struggles to eat sunflowers seeds and unlike most of the crows he will take the smaller cat food before the larger dog food much of the time. He often must lay his head sideways to pick the food up because of the shape of his beak

Photo taken 5/11/2009 in Seward, location unknown - probably the oasis or South SWP.

Photo taken in back yard on 07/23/2008 (photo named with incorrect date - says 7/21/08)
It is probably just a preening issue or normal albeit unfamiliar to me, but the bulge on the Magpie on the lower left looks odd to me and reminds me of "Puffy" and the Starling Jay that had a tumor (Sea life center came and got him and determined that he had a tumor encroaching on his brain). One of the the magpies was limping, but I do not know which one.

Photo Taken March 2 2008 (mislabeled as March 1) on 'B' Street between Oasis and Wooded campground

This Juvenile has what looked like an abscess or tumor on its right foot so i called him "Lumpy" (actually I think it is a her). I reported it to someone at Sea Life Center who reported it to 2 vets. I saw this eagle several times but do not recall if I saw it after this date.

This photo of crows in flight was taken from my living room window on January 2 2008. Originally I counted 97 crows, but by labeling each crow I found 128 in the photo. No wonder I could not afford to feed them!

It has been a very long time since I took stats but I think you should expect to find between 2 and 3 crows with very unusual beaks in this flock and possibly more like 6 depending on the # of standard deviations and how you are quantifying the degree of deformity (does a particular bird's beak fall between two or three standard deviations of normal? ) . Maybe that is irrelevant but it seems like if you are studying etiology you have to take into account the natural occurrence of abnormalities.

Was counting the crows in the photo when I began to wonder how many actually have deformed beaks. I wonder if any unusual beaks have been reported this year.

The above seagull has rippled area on top of maxilla - looks similar to melted plastic

May 15, 2008 Back Yard

The beak looks odd to me - deformed?

June Oasis

This crow is MaxiGap and nests in the area I labeled "wooded campground" at the north end of Seward Waterfront park. Maxi Gap's beak looks a tad twisted at tip.