Eagle beak sideview The bill of a scavenger—the vulture.

The beak—otherwise known as the bill or rostrum—is an external anatomical structure which serves as the mouth in some animals. It is a distinctive feature of birds and, in addition to eating, is used by them for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, courtship, and feeding their young.

Anser cygnoides The bill and knob of a domesticated Chinese goose, highly exaggerated by farm selection.

Billing

Morus bassanus billing Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) billing.

During courtship, mated pairs of a variety of bird species touch and clasp each other's bills. This is called billing, and appears to strengthen the pair bond (Terres, 1980). Gannets raise their bills high and repeatedly clatter them (pictured); the male puffin nibbles at the female's beak; the male waxwing puts his bill in the female's mouth; and ravens hold each other's beaks in a prolonged "kiss".

Bristol zoo greater flamingo The bill of the Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus.

References

Brown falcon The beak of a Brown Falcon, Falco berigora.

  • Gilbertson, Lance; Zoology Lab Manual; McGraw Hill Companies, New York; ISBN 0-07-237716-X (fourth edition, 1999)
  • Terres, John. K. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. ISBN 0394466519

Bird Beaks Comparison of different types of bird beaks, displaying the different shapes that are a result of different feeding adaptations. Bird heads are not shown to scale.

Links

Beak of an African Penguin The beak of an African Penguin, Spheniscus demersus.

Long Billed Corella Beak The long white beak of a Long-billed Corella (Cacatua (Licmetis) tenuirostris) is used to dig for roots and seeds.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Beauty and the Beak

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