Strange Beak Deformities Hit Hawks In Washington State, California

[hatrack]

"It took some effort for Bud Anderson, a falcon researcher in Bow, to pull the dead red-tailed hawk out of a tree on the Samish Flats. The freezing weather and the bird's rigor mortis had wrapped it around a branch. Anderson climbed about 5 feet off the ground. He reached out with his bare hands and pulled the bird free, dropping it to the snow on the ground. The first place he studied was the bird's beak.

The top half of the beak had already rotted and fallen off, but looking at the lower half, Anderson saw a familiar deformity that might have led to the bird's death.

For the past two years, Anderson's organization, the Falcon Research Group, has documented a mysterious disorder among an alarming number of hawks in Western Washington. The disorder causes the birds' beaks to grow faster than normal and makes it harder for the hawks to hunt. In some cases, the deformity has developed to such an extent that the birds are unable to eat, leaving them to slowly starve to death. Reports of the disorder in hawks range from British Columbia to Central California and include four different species of hawks. Unconfirmed cases of the disorder have been reported in Los Angeles, Texas and Minnesota and include crows and common seagulls.

The cause of the disorder, whether it is tied to pollution or to a disease, is unknown. For now, there are more questions than answers. If the hawk Anderson found dead in the tree last week is determined to suffer from the disorder, it will be the 60th instance of the deformity since Anderson first saw a long-billed hawk in 1997. Anderson said he is convinced the 59 confirmed cases are not normal. "There have always been records of birds with long beaks, but what we see is a concentration of them, and that is troubling," Anderson said. Some oversized beaks Anderson has found are just a few centimeters too long. Others are too long by a matter of inches."

EDIT

http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2005/01/16/news/news01.txt

[Freebird12004]

1. sounds like a problem

rather than a natural change. Birds are the first to react to environmental toxins.

[hatrack]

2. Particularly raptors, at the top of the food chain

nt