TYPES OF BEAKS IN BIRDS
The presence of a beak or bill is the characteristics of the bird. Beak
or Bill is an elongated upper and lower jaws. Both the beak are covered by a horny sheath called
rhamphotheca.
In bird, there are various kinds of beak modifications according
to food and feeding habit of birds.
The following are some common types of beak modifications in
birds.
1.
Seed
eating beak - Sparrow, Pigeon
2.
Cutting
beak - Crow
3.
Fruit
eating beak - Parrot, Hornbill
4.
Fish
catching beak - Kingfisher, Cormorant
5.
Insect
catching beak - Robin,
Frogmouth
6.
Wood
chiseling beak - Woodpecker
7.
Piercing
and tearing beak - Vulture, Eagle
8.
Flower
probing - Hummingbird
9.
Mud
straining beak - Duck, Flamingo
10. Mud
probing beak - Stilt
11. Spatulated
beak - Spoonbill
12. Pouched
beak - Pelican
1. The seed-eating beaks are weak short and stout.
2. The beak is conical peg-like and pointed at the tip.
3. These type of beak are found in small seed-eating or
graminivorous birds.
Ex - sparrows finches, pigeon, etc
1.
The
cutting beak and strong and powerful.
2.
These
type of beak has sharp cutting edges.
3.
Such
type of beak is used for various purposes.
4.
Such
beak is used for cutting food, to break eggshell, cutting the flesh, etc.
Ex. Crows.
1.
This type of beak is found in fruit-eating (Frugivorous) bird.
2.
The
fruit-eating beaks are large, sharp, powerful and hooked
3.
The upper beak is movable on the skull and is well adapted for tearing fruits
and break
open hard nuts and seeds.
4.
In
parrot upper beak is curved and pointed at the tip while the lower beak is short and with sharp cutting edges.
5.
Upper the beak is used to hold support and the lower beak is used to scoop out the fruit flesh.
6.
In
hornbill beak look like large and heavy
but internally these beaks are
internally cellular and light in weight.
Ex. Parrot
, Hornbill
1.
Piercing
and tearing beak is found in carnivorous birds.
2.
These
types of the beak are very strong and powerful.
3.
Upper
beak is curved and pointed at the tip.
4.
The
margins of the beak are very sharp.
5.
This
type of beak is adapted for piercing and tearing flesh.
Ex. Vultures,
Hawks, Eagles, Kites, and Owls
1.
The
beak is long and slender found in an insectivorous bird.
2.
Beak
is adopted for turning leaves and probing into the soil in search of insect
larvae.
3.
In
swift, flycatcher and swallow beak is small and strong with notched
mandible
at the tip modified to capture insects during flight.
4.
In
frogmouth bird soft feathers (Rectal bristles) are present at the base of the beak. On another hand, frogmouth bird kept its mouth open during flying. These modifications are for to trap insect during flight
Ex.- Swifts, swallows
, Flycatchers, hoopoe, etc.
1.
The
fish caching beak is long, strong and sharply pointed.
2.
In
case of kingfisher the edges of beak are very sharp.
3.
In
cormorant the margins of the beak are toothed or serrated
4.
These
modifications in these birds are to
prevent the escape of captured slippery prey like fish and to capture frog, tadpoles, Mollusca and other aquatic animals
Ex. King
fisher, Cormorant.
1. The wood
chiseling beaks are long , straight, stout and chisel- like and are strongly
articulated with the skull
2. The skull
bones are also thick and shock absorbent
neck muscles are also strong
3. This type of
beak is used for chiseling and drilling into
bark or wood of trees for the
prey, e.g.
insects and their larvae and for nest
construction
4. It is commonly
found in woodpeckers.
1.
This
type of beaks are very long, slender and slightly curved to probe the
mud underwater in search of larvae and aquatic worms
2.
These
are commonly found in stilts, snipes, sandpipers, jacanas, lapwing. etc.
1.
Both
the beak are flat and broad.
2.
In
duck the gap is present between both the beak which is covered with
membranous Lamellae
which act as sieve or filter to strain out mud and water.
3.
Duck
take mouthful of debris. The mud and water strain out through marginal
lamella
leaving the food particle into the mouth.
4.
In
flaming upper beak is long and curved while lower beak is short and straight
leads to gap between two beak. This gap is covered by lamella through which
mud
is strain out.
Ex.
Ducks, teals, geese and flamingo.
1.
This
type of beak is long narrow and pointed for probing the bottom of flowers to take honey.
2.
These
beak is slender and slightly curved.
3.
The
shape of flower is adopted with the shape of flower.
4.
These
birds fly in front of flower in mid-air
for sucking the honey or nectar.
Ex- Sun
bird, Humming bird.
1. It is found in
pelecans
2. The lower beak shows presence of large gular pouch.
3. The gular
pouch is an extension of skin and attached to the mandibles for
storing
engulfed fish.
Ex. Pelican
1. It is characteristics of spoon-bill
2. Both the beak are long and flat terminated in a broad spatulate or
spoon
like expansion.
3. The spatulate
expansion is used for dabbing in mud below water and in
search of fish ,tadpoles,
worms , insects and other small aquatic animals.
Ex. Spoonbill
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