UK birds with deformed beaks

[treesparrow]

Sott run this story near the end of last year -


http://www.sott.net/articles/show/217545-Birds-with-Deformed-Beaks-Appearing-in-Alaska-Northwest-and-Canada-at-Record-Breaking-Rate

Glancing through a bird watching magazine today I came across an article about the increasing number of birds now coming to garden feeders with deformed beaks in the UK. A map accompanying the article showed the distribution records of birds with beak deformities to be quite widespread and numerous throughout the country.

Here's some photos of the deformities -


http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/bgbw/gallery


An item about the phenomena -

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/bgbw/causes


I'd imagine for all the reported garden birds with these deformed beaks there may be a much larger number of unrecorded birds in the greater countryside.

Perhaps this thing will become global?

 

[Laurentien2]

This is awful, are we seeing the beginning of freak mutation due to an over polluted earth. It hasn't started to rain big time yet. What will it be in a year or so.

 

[treesparrow]

Just did a little more digging and found some more data and numbers in the linked article below

http://www.express.co.UK/posts/view/227533/Bent-beaks-are-the-squawk-of-the-townBent-beaks-are-the-squawk-of-the-townBent-beaks-are-the-squawk-of-the-townBent-beaks-are-the-squawk-of-the-town

Over 240 records (and rising) with 25 different species involved (with what seems to be a high preponderance of ground feeding birds, such as starlings and rooks, which probe the soil for invertebrates).

 

[jordifs]

Interesting, my bird at home (the male) also has deformities on the beak. He lives with me, in Barcelona (not UK).

 

[treesparrow]

The total numbers of reported birds with deformed beaks in the UK has now risen to 360

Here's a map of the records -

Other specific species maps are available at -

_http://www.bto.org.uk/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/bgbw/results/distribution

Just what exactly is causing this?

Here's some photos of the worst deformities -