Tag beak

Why does the Avocet have an upturned beak?

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Why does the Avocet have an upturned, or upcurved, beak?

The Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) is a small bird in the Recurvirostridae family of waders. It has long legs to wade in water. It lives in wetlands, such as marshes, swamps, lakes, estuaries, and rivers.

The Avocet has a long, thin, upcurved black beak. It measures about 8 centimetres (3 inches) long. Many wetlands birds, such as Ibis and Curlew, have a long, thin downturned beak, but the Avocet has an upturned beak.

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Why do woodpeckers peck?

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Why do woodpeckers peck?

The Woodpecker is a tree-climbing bird with a strong beak. 

It lives in forests. It pecks at the bark of a tree to find its food, such as insects and insect larvae. It has a long tongue to catch insects. It also pecks on the tree to communicate with other Woodpeckers. 

Wood-pecking is hard work. To ensure that it has enough energy, the Woodpecker needs to eat regularly. Scientists think that it can eat 1,000-2,000 insects a day.

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Salmon-Crested Cockatoo

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The Salmon-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis) is a large bird in the parrot family. It is also known as the Moluccan Cockatoo.

The Salmon-Crested Cockatoo has white-pink feathers with a peach tint, a slight yellow colour underwing and yellowish underneath its tail feathers. It has a large bright orange-red crest. It has a large grey hooked beak. The male has a dark-brown or black eyes. The female has brown to red eyes. 

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Southern Crested Caracara

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The Southern Crested Caracara (Caracara planacus) is a large bird of prey and a raptor in the Falconidae family of falcons. It is a falconid.

The Southern Crested Caracara has dark-brownish cap, belly, wings, and tail tip. Its throat and the back of its neck are whitish-buff, with dark-brownish bars on its chest, neck, back, and tail. It has large brown eyes with a reddish-orange eye-ring. Its cere is reddish-orange and its beak is beige and hooked. Its legs are yellow. 

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Rook

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The Rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a large bird in the Corvus family of crows. It is a corvid.

The Rook has shiny, black feathers with a whitish, featherless area on its face. It has black, shaggy feathers on its legs. Its feet are also black. Its eyes are brown. Its large beak is grey-black.

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Abyssinian Ground Hornbill

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The Abyssinian Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus) is a large terrestrial bird. It is also known as the Northern Ground Hornbill. 

The Abyssinian Ground Hornbill has black feathers with white primary feathers. The male has a patch of blue featherless skin around its eyes and an inflatable patch of bare red skin on its neck and throat. Its beak is long and black with a reddish base. On top of its beak is a black hard structure called a casque. The female is similar to the male, but with dark blue bare skin. Both the male and the female have long eye feathers that look like eyelashes. 

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CREATURE FEATURE: Toco Toucan

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The Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco) is a large bird. It is also known as the Common Toucan or the Giant Toucan. 

The Toco Toucan has a black body, white cheeks, white throat, white chest, and white uppertail coverts, with red undertail coverts. It has a very large, yellow-orange beak with a black band at the base and a large spot at the tip. Its beak is hollow and light. It has bright blue eye-rings. Its tongue is long and flat. Its legs are dark-grey. The male and female have a similar appearance.

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Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise

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The Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise (Testudo hermanni peloponnesica) is a small to medium-sized land chelonian reptile. It is related to the Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca). 

The Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise has a slightly domed, rounded shell, called a carapace. The carapace is black and yellow with markings, but the colour fades with age, and becomes grey or straw-coloured. Its underbelly is creamy-beige. It has no teeth, but it has a strong, short beak. It has scaly brownish-grey, stumpy legs with five claws. Its back legs are thicker than its front legs. The tip of its tail has a spur (a horny, short spike). 

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Kea

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The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is a large bird in the parrot family. It is the world’s only alpine (high mountain) parrot. It is related to the flightless Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus).

The Kea is mostly olive-green, which means that it is well-camouflaged in trees. It has brilliant orange feathers under its wings. The feathers on its back and rump are orange-red, and some of the outer wing feathers are dull blue. It has a dark olive-brown face. Its blue-grey upper beak is large, narrow, and curved. It has a short, broad, bluish-green tail with a black tip. It has dark-brown eyes. Its cere, eye-rings, and legs are grey. 

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What are the similarities between the Alexandrine Parakeet and the Rose-Ringed Parakeet?

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What are the similarities between the Alexandrine Parakeet (Psitacula eupatria) and the Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)? 

Both the Alexandrine Parakeet and the Rose-Ringed Parakeet are Asian parrots with mainly green feathers and a thick red beak. 

The Alexandrine Parakeet has a red beak with yellow tips, whereas the Rose-Ringed Parakeet has no yellow tips on its beak.

The Alexandrine Parakeet has a red patch on its shoulder, whereas the Rose-Ringed Parakeet has no red patch on its shoulder.

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Smew

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The Smew (Mergellus albellus) is a medium-sized bird in the wild duck family. It is a diving duck. It is a sea duck, living in marine (saltwater) locations, but it breeds in freshwater lakes. It is also known as the Redhead Smew and the White Nun. It is related to the Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). 

The male and female Smew look different. The male Smew is mostly white, with a black patch around his eye, a black nape, white crest feathers, and a grey rump and sides, with two fine black lines on each side of his chest. Its beak is grey. Its legs and webbed feet are grey.

The female has a rufous-brown (red-brown) head, nape and neck, a white throat and white cheeks, with grey upperparts and a mottled-grey chest. She has brown eyes, grey beak, grey legs, and grey webbed feet. Both the male and the female have a beak with a hooked tip. 

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Scarlet Honeycreeper

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The Scarlet Honeycreeper (Drepanis coccinea orVestiaria coccinea) is a small bird in the hummingbird family. It is also known as the I’iwi. It was previously categorized as Vestiaria coccinea, but taxonomists changed the classification to Drepanis coccineain 2015. 

The Scarlet Honeycreeper is mostly scarlet with black wings and a black tail. It has a long, decurved, pinkish beak. 

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American Flamingo

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The American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is a large wetland wading bird. It is also known as the Caribbean Flamingo. 

The American Flamingo has reddish-pink feathers. Its wing coverts are red, and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. Its beak is pink and white with a black tip. Its long legs are pink, and it usually stands on one leg. It has a long, curved S-shaped neck. 

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Eclectus Parrot

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The Eclectus Parrot (Eclectus roratus) is medium-sized bird.

The Eclectus Parrot male and female look very different. The male is bright green and the female is mostly bright red. The male is bright green with blue primary feathers and red sides. Its short tail is edged with a narrow band of creamy-yellow, but is mainly green.

The female is bright red with a darker colour on her back and wings. Her underwing coverts are purple. Her short tail is edged with yellow-orange above and orange below. The male has an orange and black beak: orange on the upper mandible and black on the lower mandible. The female has an all-black beak. Both have yellow to orange eyes.

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Ruddy Turnstone

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The Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is a small wading bird – a wader – that lives in wetlands. It is in the Scolopacidae family of Sandpipers.

The Ruddy Turnstone varies in colours of brown with a pattern of black and white. Its head is mainly white with black streaks on its crown, with a black pattern on its face. It has a slightly upturned wedge-shaped dark beak. Its chest is mainly black with white patches on the side, and white underparts. Its rump and tail have dark bands. Its legs are bright orange. The female is duller in colour than the male, with a browner head that has more streaks.

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Scarlet Ibis

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The Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) is a large wetlands bird. It is a wader and a shore or coastal bird. It is the only red coastal bird in the world.

The Scarlet Ibis is scarlet red. Its wingtips often have black or dark blue markings. It has a long downward-curved red beak, which is darker towards the tip. Its feet are red. Its neck and legs are long, and they are out-stretched when they fly.

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