Thanks Nancy, I will look into your links.
On Nov 10, 2020, at 3:21 PM, Nancy and Mike Thomas <shipwreck5000@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Deformed Bills
There was an interesting article in Bird Watcher's Digest July/August '19
suggesting that these deformities may be a virus in the same family that
causes the common cold and polio in humans. Maxine Zylberberg discovered
this in birds RNA. Zylberberg worked with Handel, Van Hemert and a team of
researchers at the California Academy of Sciences and the University of
California San Francisco offered to use their advanced DNA and RNA sequence
technology on the bird bill samples. A previously unknown virus belonging to
the family of picornaviruses was found in everyone of the birds with deformed
bills. New virus was called poecivirus. The aforementioned information is
what was written in the article.
Handel requests that you report any birds with deformed bills on the website
Alaskan Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey, alaska.usgs.gov
<http://alaska.usgs.gov/> or mail GS-AK_Beak_Deformity @usgs.gov
<http://usgs.gov/> Thought this may be of interest to you and others. Nancy
Thomas
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 11:36 PM Richard Leinen <rick.lumen@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:rick.lumen@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I believe I may have sent this to the wrong address. My apologies if you
already received it.
Rick Leinen
Wilsonville
Begin forwarded message:
From: Richard Leinen <rick.lumen@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:rick.lumen@xxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: Malformed Beak
Date: November 8, 2020 at 7:04:57 PM PST
To: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I thought some may find this interesting. I saw a savannah sparrow today on
the Hatfield Marine Center trail that was missing most of its upper
mandible. It looks malformed, not broken. It was also missing all of its
tail feathers.
More pics here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S76003768 ;
<https://ebird.org/checklist/S76003768>
<_DSC0256[689] (Savannah Sparrow - Beak - Closeup).jpg>
