Post by kastern on Jul 17, 2008 13:16:46 GMT -8
For sometime now I have had a rather deformed Steller's Jay coming to my feeders. I have been trying to get a picture of it before posting anything, but it has proven very difficult to photograph, however I did manage this shot from yesterday.
The most noticable thing about the bird is it's bill. Not only is the lower mandible longer than the upper, but it curves to one side. The bird cannot completely close it's bill, but what I find even more amazing is the fact that I am pretty sure this is not a 'this year's bird'...it started to show up last March and is still around periodically, so it is obviously managing to find enough to eat. When it is at the feeders it tilts it's head to one side and sort of scoops the seed up with the lower part....I don't think it is capable of actually cracking a sunflower seed shell. Now that it is also moulting you can see that some of the feathers are also growing in sort of curly. It was windy yesterday so that may account for some of the 'curl' but the other Jays didn't look like this.
Kathy
The most noticable thing about the bird is it's bill. Not only is the lower mandible longer than the upper, but it curves to one side. The bird cannot completely close it's bill, but what I find even more amazing is the fact that I am pretty sure this is not a 'this year's bird'...it started to show up last March and is still around periodically, so it is obviously managing to find enough to eat. When it is at the feeders it tilts it's head to one side and sort of scoops the seed up with the lower part....I don't think it is capable of actually cracking a sunflower seed shell. Now that it is also moulting you can see that some of the feathers are also growing in sort of curly. It was windy yesterday so that may account for some of the 'curl' but the other Jays didn't look like this.
Kathy
