beak
Sign in to savethumb|Comparison of bird beaks, displaying different shapes adapted to different feeding methods; not to scale The beak or bill is an external rostrum structure found mostly in birds. A beak is used for pecking, grasping, and holding (in probing for food, eating, manipulating and carrying objects, killing prey, or fighting), preening, courtship, and feeding young. The terms beak and rostrum are also used to refer to a similar mouth part in some ornithischians, pterosaurs, cetaceans, dicynodonts, rhynchosaurs, anuran tadpoles, monotremes (i.e. echidnas and platypuses, which have a bill-like str
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A beak is a hard, external mouth structure found primarily in birds, used for eating, grasping objects, fighting, preening, and caring for young. Similar beak-like structures also appear in some other animals including pterosaurs, cetaceans, and monotremes, and the variety of beak shapes across species reflects adaptations to different feeding methods.
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Article
34 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Anatomy
- Mandibles
- Rhamphotheca
- Tomia
- Culmen
- Gonys
- Commissure
- Gape
- Nares
- Operculum
- Rosette
- Cere
- Nail
- Rictal bristles
- Egg tooth
- Color
- Dimorphism
- Development
- Functions
- Eating
- Self-defensive pecking
- Displays (for courtship, territoriality, or deterrence)
- Sensory detection
- Preening
- Communicative percussion
- Heat exchange
- Billing
- Beak trimming
- Bill tip organ
- See also
- Footnotes
- References
- Bibliography
thumb|Comparison of bird beaks, displaying different shapes adapted to different feeding methods; not to scale The beak or bill is an external rostrum structure found mostly in birds. A beak is used for pecking, grasping, and holding (in probing for food, eating, manipulating and carrying objects, killing prey, or fighting), preening, courtship, and feeding young. The terms beak and rostrum are also used to refer to a similar mouth part in some ornithischians, pterosaurs, cetaceans, dicynodonts, rhynchosaurs, anuran tadpoles, monotremes (i.e. echidnas and platypuses, which have a bill-like structure), sirens, pufferfish, billfishes, and cephalopods.
Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, they share a similar underlying structure. Two bony projections–the upper and lower mandibles–are covered with a thin keratinized layer of epidermis known as the rhamphotheca. In most species, two holes called nares lead to the respiratory system.