Darwinian Adaption

Strange...so glad they can still eat...

It is strange, especially the cross beaks. The experts haven't decided what is causing it yet. This is more than triple the normal length.

Dont like the look of that what have you got polluted in your part of the world.

Perhaps it's a symptom of cross breading...some finches have crossed bills. but there are aberations with beaks and bills from agricultural pollution(herbicides and heavy metals) in their breeding grounds... do they range very far?

We have very little pollution and little agriculture especially any which would use any sprays. I found a few resource links below. Sightings occur only in Alaska and in large numbers. It is spreading across other varieties of birds. I'm glad I'm feeding them since it sounds like they cannot forage normally and often have trouble surviving the winters. This case pictured here is just begun, the real problem is if the ends of the beak stop meeting. There has been no cause discovered.

Chickadees only range about three miles and since the effected populations are in a 400 mile spread, there has not been an environmental factor identified. I think it is odd that sightings began in 1991 in southeast Alaska which is mostly coastline effected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. That terrifies me about the new spill down in the gulf!

http://www.aba.org/birding/v39n5p48.pdf

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF14/1483.html