Friday, April 22, 2011

It's All About the Beak!

A parrot's beak is a very fascinating part of what makes a parrot a parrot.  Parrots use their beaks to help them climb, to open the smallest seeds, or the hardest nuts, to preen their feathers, to clean their toes, to feed their mates, to feed their own baby parrots, to give their humans gentle kisses, and of course to nip or bite at something they fear or something that simply makes them irritated.

Beaks are often used for climbing and can almost seem like a parrot's third foot as they can use their powerful beaks to hoist themselves up their play gyms and cages, or even to just hang by their beak as they swing from their toys.  Have you ever watched a parrot climb a ladder?  The beak makes climbing around so much easier for them.  They often use their beaks to help steady the finger or hand that reaches out to them as the first part of stepping up. 

Those powerful beaks can be used to gently open the smallest seed to get at the wonderful nutrition inside.  Ever watched a parrot close up picking up a seed, moving it around with their foot and their beak to get it situated to just the right spot for opening? Then using the foot, beak, and tongue, in unison they pry open the hull for the goodness inside.  Or, just watch one of the big parrots rotating a big walnut to just the right place before cracking that hard nut as if it were made of the thinnest of shells.  Then picking out the meat of the walnut with the tips of their beaks to make sure every little nugget of nutmeat is devoured.

Watch closely as your bird preens its feathers using the beak as a precision tool made for preening.  Taking each feather with great care and running it through the beak removing all dust and debris for perfect feather condition.  No matter if its the tiny downy feathers that must be gingerly removed, or the longest of the long tail feathers, that beak is the perfect tool for parrot preening and sharing the job with another feathered friend can be great fun too. 

If you have ever been lucky enough to watch parrot parents feeding their young, it is the most touching of all.  Although the parent beaks are huge compared to the tiny little babies, they are able to deliver food to their babies with the greatest of ease with no harm at all to the babies.  The parents also use their beaks to gently nudge the babies into the perfect position under their adult feathers to keep them as warm as needed.  To watch the gentleness of an adult parrot with it's young is wondrous indeed.

But you may ask, what is this remarkable parrot beak made of?  A beak consists of keratin which is the same material your fingernails contain.  However, unlike a fingernail, a bird's beak also contains blood vessels and nerve endings.  Therefore a bird's beak is very sensitive to touch and also to injury.  Some birds love to have their beaks gently rubbed by their favorite person, and some tend to be beak shy because the beak is so sensitive.  A parrot's beak continues to grow all throughout a bird's life and in nature, birds are busy wearing the extra growth down with natural tree branches and foraging for their food.  If you have a pet bird, you need to provide lots of wooden toys of different textures, both soft and hard wood, and possibly other materials, to help prevent over-growth of the beak.  So you see those wooden bird toys your bird buzz saws through are as much a necessity for your parrot as any vitamins you might provide for a healthy bird.  Bird beaks can be gently filed down if needed, but should only be done by someone who knows what they are doing as the beak can be damaged permanently by inexperienced groomers.  Beaks should never be cut by anyone other than a vet or experienced bird groomer. 

If your bird's beak overgrows even with lots of toys and chew items, you may need to have your bird checked thoroughly by your avian vet to be sure there is not a health reason for the overgrowth.




Anonymous said...

Very infomation thick article on Beaks. I sure enjoyed it! Thanks.

Steve said...

My Parrot can do amazing thinks with his beak. Like picking all the keys of computer keyboards like in this video