'Beaky' the blue tit beats the odds

A BLUE tit with a deformed beak has battled against all the odds to win its fight for survival.

• The bird has defied the expectations of wildlife experts by surviving with an oversized top bill, which can prevent feeding. Picture: Gordon McCall

Experts say the bird, which some have taken to calling Beaky, should have starved to death, as its massive upper bill – a third of the length of its body – would normally prevent it from feeding.

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It was pictured at the wild bird feeding station, outside the RSPB's Lochwinnoch nature reserve, in Renfrewshire, by ornithologist Gordon McCall.

Paula Baker, assistant site manager at the reserve, said: "Blue tits are about 12cm long, from the tip of their tail to the tip of their beak, and the beak on this one is about 4cm long, when normally it would be less than 1cm."

The bird was first seen at the feeding station around 10 March by a member of the public and has become something of a celebrity thanks to its regular return trips in the last month.

Ms Baker said: "It has been causing quite a stir and it has done really well to survive.

"It stands out from the crowd at our feeding station. It has just been using the side of its mouth to feed, picking things up that have fallen to the ground."

She added: "When it was first seen it actually had a long top and bottom bill – they crossed over – but the bottom one came off."

RSPB experts said that overgrown bills, particularly of this size, are uncommon in wild birds, as they would usually prevent the animal from feeding and lead to starvation and death.

But they said this blue tit has so far shown no signs of difficulty and appears unaffected by its deformity.

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Kirsi Peck from the RSPB's wildlife inquiries team said: "A bird's beak is rather like a human fingernail and grows at a slow rate throughout its life.

"Normally, the two sections work against each other while the bird feeds, ensuring that they stay the correct shape and size.

"But in this case, it looks like something has happened to the upper mandible causing it to grow excessively."

She added: "It's likely to continue to grow, and unfortunately, it will eventually affect the blue tit's ability to feed and preen.

"It's really quite amazing that it is doing so well at the moment."

The Lochwinnoch reserve is one of the last remaining wetlands in West Scotland and is popular with wildlife photographers, who use a specially designated hide for snapping resident and visiting birds.

Meanwhile, Scotland's only parrot sanctuary was officially opened to the public on the island of Kerrera, near Oban, yesterday.

Bird behavioural expert Yvonne MacMillan opened the sanctuary to visitors to help pay the costs of caring for sick and abandoned parrots.

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Demand for the sanctuary's service has been so high that the exotic birds now outnumber the people living on Kerrera.

Mrs MacMillan, who lives on the four-mile long island in Oban Bay, said the sanctuary had not been planned, but had simply evolved as she was asked to help with more and more rescue cases.

Mrs MacMillan, who sold a glass engraving business to devote all her time to looking after the birds, said: "There are now 50 parrots on the island and only 40 people. Every time I said, 'No, I am full,' another one came in.

"Some of the parrots have been abused through pure ignorance, others are here because, although their owners loved them, they couldn't handle them.

"People just seem to think… they talk, they say hello, and they are pretty colours – but they forget that these birds can live 80 years."

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