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The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young. Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape and color, they share a similar underlying structure.
Comparison of bird beaks, displaying different shapes adapted to different feeding methods. Not to scale. The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals.
When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
Darwin's finches with different sized beaks that were suited for different seed types. Another example of directional selection is the beak size in a specific population of finches. Darwin first observed this in the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species, and he details how the size of the finches beak differs based on environmental ...
The monotreme platypus has what looks like a bird's beak (hence its scientific name Ornithorhynchus), but is a mammal. [38] However, it is not structurally similar to a bird beak (or any "true" beak, for that matter), being fleshy instead of keratinous. Red blood cells in mammals lack a cell nucleus.
Herons, by evolutionary adaptation, have long beaks. The classification of the individual heron/egret species is fraught with difficulty, and no clear consensus exists about the correct placement of many species into either of the two major genera, Ardea and Egretta. Similarly, the relationships of the genera in the family are not completely ...
Toucan beaks are responsible for only one twentieth of the entire mass of the creature allowing the bird to fly even with its massive beak. [12] As previously mentioned, the keratin shell and closed-cell foam organization in the toucan beak plays a role in the beak's characteristic energy absorption, compressive resistance, high stiffness and ...
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