A beak abnormality in birds such as chickadees located in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska can help scientists find hidden toxins that we didn't know existed outside factories before. These poor birds are growing beaks at a terribly alarming rate - these beaks not only grow, but they can curve and even cross with each other. These problems cause the animals feeding problems.
As you can see in this picture I uploaded, chickadees can't open their beaks all the way, which prevents them from cracking seeds and all the other things they need to do to eat. Beak deformities are very rare in adult birds, and since there are so many of them altered, people can tell that something is wrong. According to the article, birds only grow weird beaks when exposed to parasites, viral infections, and strange contaminants in the environment. When a lot of birds are affected with deformed beaks, it proves that something has altered the environment they live in. Sadly, the article didn't state whether or not they have a solution for this problem, so I do not know what is being done to help the poor birds.
I think that this is very serious. If the chickadees have trouble eating or mating because of these weird beak problems, that could lead to a large decrease in the amount of local birds. If the birds are gone, a decrease in the amount of bird predators could follow. It would be disrupting the food chain, and a lot of animal lives could be lost because of it. I think that scientists should find out what is causing this, and they should try to solve it. It's not fair to the birds and to all the other animals that will be affected by a decrease in the bird population of Alaska.
Originally written by: Krist Mahr
Written On: November 8, 2010
For more information, go to:
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/11/08/tweaked-beaks-how-bird-deformities-help-flag-undetected-toxins/
I agree with you thwt this is a very serious problem. In the photo, the bird looks like it has a leaf stem hanging out of its mouth, not an oversized beak. Your article was good because it contained both you reporting of the facts, and your opinions on the facts. It was also a good length.
ReplyDeleteNice putting everything in order, I liked your conclusion and that you stated yor own opinion at the end. Also, I liked how you explained the photo, it made me "see" it better.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up! :)
When I first looked at the picture it looked the the bird had a twig in its mouth. You had a nice conclusion and your article was written strongly
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