ID tips & tricks

Nothing betrays a bird’s feeding habitats more clearly than that bird’s bill. Bills are tools used for finding and obtaining food and processing that food, as well as general feather maintenance (and sometimes to make sounds in display and as a weapon for defence). As tools, bills have to have the functional form to perform the tasks they need to do. Insect-eater’s bills are fine and narrow, while seed-eaters’ bills are usually chunkier. Among passerines, this is perhaps most obviously demonstrated by the finches. Different finches can have radically different bill sizes and shapes to suit the birds’ needs. So, for instance, a Siskin has a fine pointed bill for extracting tiny seeds, while a Hawfinch has a massive nut-crushing monster of a bill. And, of course, the Crossbill has crossed mandibles for extracting seeds from cones. Look at the bill first as a useful pointer for ID.

As tools, bills have to have the functional form to perform the tasks they need to do. Insect-eater’s bills are fine and narrow, while seed-eaters’ bills are usually chunkier