I saw a female house finch with two faces at my bird feeder today.

[hunter]

It was fully adult and quite aggressive with the other birds. It fed just as long as house finches usually do, so I had a bit of time to watch it.

It had two fully formed beaks, but used only one. The unused beak was slightly smaller, darker, and somewhat distorted. The two eyes on either side of the beaks seemed to be functional, but only the eye nearest the working beak looked entirely normal. There was also a mess above the two beaks which I'm guessing was where the eyes of the two faces joined. This center eye mass was surrounded by small feathers going every which way.

I wasn't able to fetch my camera before it flew off. I'm leaving my camera within reach in case it returns.

[Warpy]

1. It's amazing it's survived to adulthood

and it sounds like it'll have a decent birdie life.

[leftyohiolib]

2. i saw a man on tv with many faces, he said his name was mit romney

[dtexdem]

4. That's Mitt Romney -- as well as two faces, he also has two Ts.

;-)

[MADem]

3. What a rarity that it lived so long. nt

[bainz]

5. I'm leaving my camera within reach in case it returns.

Please do. I would love to see pics.

[Poll_Blind]

6. Please do take a picture if it returns! nt

PB

[glinda]

7. Oh man that is sad.

[MineralMan]

8. How cool that you got to see something rare.

And how interesting that the bird seems to be doing OK.

[hunter]

12. She seemed entirely healthy.

I guess bird life is easy here; easy enough that having two faces isn't a severe handicap. It's got to be awful aerodynamics, but maybe she makes up for it by startling predators and competitors. She was certainly holding her ground with the other birds at the feeder.

[MineralMan]

13. I hope you get some pictures. Usually finches keep coming back

to feeders, so you'll probably get some chances.

[Zoeisright]

9. That's not good.

That is quite a genetic mutation.

[HereSince1628]

10. I'm thinking probably developmental rather than genetic

things don't always go quite right with embryos.

[Control-Z]

17. Seems to be along the same lines

as conjoined twins. I know there are animals other than human to whom it happens. I've seen double yolk eggs, so I imagine it is probably what happened.

[HereSince1628]

19. Maybe though I was thinking deformity of the neural crest

or something like that.

[jwirr]

15. But it does happen in all kinds of animals including humans. I remember

there was a calf with two heads when I was small - it was quite a sensation.

[TwilightGardener]

11. Interesting. My house finches often have a pox-related disfigurement, they'll have

dark cone-shaped projections on their heads. But never saw a two-faced one, that's weird.

[XemaSab]

14. How weird!

I've heard of that happening in water birds, but not land birds!

Try to get a picture!

[Tesha]

16. Zaphod Beeblebird! (NT)

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Heh. +1 n/t

[drmeow]

22. LOL eom

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Set up a hunting cam.

[Voice for Peace]

21. have you seen frank and louie? (2-faced kitty)

http://www.boston.com/community/pets/articles/2011/09/28/worcester_womans_two_faced_cat_makes_the_record_books/