Anatomy 8 - Upland Gallery of Bills

All birds have unique and versatile bills exactly suited to their lifestyle. This truism makes it possible to sort out and group birds by their bills alone, in a satisfying correlation of form and function. Birds depend on their bills in universal ways as well as for unique specializations. Wear and tear from all these uses is compensated by the constant formation of new keratin, much like our fingernails.

Carolina Wren

Wrens use long, sharp decurved bill to probe for insects in tree bark and litter.

Blue Grosbeak

Grosbeaks are close relatives of finches and sparrows with especially large conical mandibles for crushing and husking seeds.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Woodpeckers use their beveled, chisel-shaped bills to excavate tree wood in foraging for food and in cavity nest-building.

Green Heron

The Green Heron's long pointed bill is equally adapted to snatching or spearing fish.

Cooper's Hawk

A hooked bill bending at the tip into a sharp point enables raptors to grasp and tear apart their prey.

Red Crossbill

Crossbills live primarily in coniferous forests where their flattened, bypassing mandibles efficiently extract seeds from pine and spruce cones.

Phoebe

Eastern Kingbird

Aerial insectivores (including swallows) tend to have wide flattened mouths surrounded by bristly feathers that increase the area of their 'scoop'. Flycatchers' bills bear a distinctive hook at the tip.

Mallard

Dabbling ducks, as well as geese and swans, strain vegetation from the water with broad mandibles ridged on the inside. Many have a sharp-edged tip on their bills called a 'nail' for cropping plants.

Black-capped Chickadee with tree pulp

Barn Swallow carrying mud

Eastern Kingbird with nest-lining material

Tree Swallow arriving with grass stalks for weaving

Birds use their bills adeptly, like our fingers, in preparing their nests.

Baltimore Oriole

The consummate weaver at Halibut Point suspends its nesting pouch beneath the tree canopy.