Scientists Probe Beak Trouble in Alaskan and Northwestern Birds

[Donna]

Federal biologists are intensifying research on a large and unexplained rise in the frequency of deformed beaks in a wide range of bird species from Alaska through the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia. The deformities reduce the birds’ ability to feed, clean themselves and raise young, according to the scientists, from the United States Geological Survey. The photo below, by Sandy Talbot, shows a normal black-capped chickadee and one with a deformed beak:
Oh not the Chickadee!
The rise in the frequency of the deformities in the region over the last decade is “startling� and cannot be a statistical fluke, the researchers said in a news release on Monday.

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[MAK]