Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum - UMZM

12/22/2023

7 Days of Bird Bills: Day 5

This chunky bill belongs to a Visayan Hornbill (Penelopides panini). These smaller hornbills are only found on two, possibly up to four, islands in the Philippines. This particular specimen in the museum came to us from a captive population in a zoo. Hornbills are known for their large ‘horn’ that sits atop their upper bill. This structure is called a casques. These structures are often hollow but are reinforced with boney struts. The casque is made of keratin, the same material as your fingernails, and is often unintentionally polished by the birds as they preen their feathers with oil from their uropygial gland. There are potentially multiple reasons for hornbills to have evolved this particular structure. Some propose that the casque act as a counterweight or act as sound chambers to enhance vocalizations. Others think that the casque adds strength to their bills to allow them to better chisel at hard bark or soil in search for prey. Interestingly larger casques are associated with larger males and are therefore believed to have evolved partially as a result of sexual selection.

12/22/2023

12/22/2023

12/22/2023

7 Days of Bird Bills: Day 4

Yeah… when I first learned about this bird I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at. This wacky member of the gull and tern family is called the Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) and yes it does indeed look like a cross between a penguin and a pair of scissors. This bird is found along the coast of North America, mostly along the Gulf Coast and throughout eastern South America. Not only does this bird have one of the craziest bills but it also has an incredibly niche method of hunting for fish. To find small fish this bird will fly slowly just over the waters surface and dip its lower bill into the water as it flies. Their bill is thin and adapted to cut through the water and offer the bird little resistance. When the bird’s bill connects with a fish, the skimmer will then bite down and catch the fish in its thin bill. Essentially the bird finds its prey by touch not by sight. Interestingly, these birds are actually hatched with the top bill and the lower bill being the same length but by 4 months old their lower bill is often at least a half inch longer.

12/20/2023

7 Days of Bird Bills: Day 3

Let’s discuss the weird bump on an American White Pelican’s bill. During breeding season both male and female American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) have a large orange bump near the tip of their bill. This odd-looking structure is called a nuptial tubercle or a caruncle! These odd bill accessories are actually made of fibrous material and they typically fall off after the mating season after the first egg is laid. Interestingly the shed ‘horn’, as they are often called, can often be found in the pelican’s nest. While many people call these structures horns, they are not horn and are not even remotely horn like. The fibrous structure is often about 3 inches tall and about 1/3 inch wide. What scientists do know is that the nuptial tubercles are somehow important to the White Pelican’s mating rituals, both males and females grow these structures and that females prefer males with larger nuptial tubercles.

12/20/2023

7 Days of Bird Bills: Day 2

Continuing on with our trend of weird bird bill accessories today we are discussing geese tomiums aka the weird thing in geese bills that look like teeth! A tomium is the sharp cutting region of a bird’s bill, in the case of most species of geese or water fowl this region is hard and spiky or serrated. This region has evolved to be perfect for tearing and shredding vegetation. As a result, it looks like geese have teeth! In fact, this adaptation is found in most waterfowl as a result of their mode of foraging for food.

12/18/2023

As I am sure many of you have notice UMZM has forgone our traditional 12 days of Christmas this year… instead we present to you 7 Days of Bird Bills! In this little holiday count down we will look at 7 unique and interesting features of bird bills and a few birds with weird and wacky beak adaptations.

Day 1:
Have you ever noticed a bump or notch on the upper bill of a bird or prey? This bump actually has a name! It is called the tomial tooth. This weird little bump occurs in a region of the bird's bill that is called the tomium which refers to a sharp region of the upper (and occasionally the lower) bill that is used for cutting. The tomial tooth is seen primarily in birds of prey such as shrikes, kites, and falcons. This sudo-tooth is used to effectively sever the prey’s spinal cord to kill it quickly. This adaption helps birds of prey dispatch their prey quickly and allows them to carry off their prey to a secondary location to be eaten. I know it sounds gruesome but it means that the intended prey struggles less and has a quick and efficient death.

12/18/2023

📣Attention artists! FWP's migratory bird art contest deadline is extended to Jan. 31, 2024.

Find submission details and rules here: https://fwp.mt.gov/migratory-bird-stamp.

The winning artwork will be on display in the Capitol in Helena and announced by Governor Greg Gianforte in late February.

The winning artwork will be featured on a commemorative 2024 waterfowl stamp package. Each year, about 35,000 hunters purchase a Montana Migratory Bird License. In 2024, each hunter will receive a free collectable sticker and postcard with the 2024 Montana Migratory Bird Stamp design. Folks who want to support wetlands conservation and restoration may also purchase a Montana Migratory Bird License and receive the Montana Migratory Bird Stamp decal and postcard. The sale of migratory bird stamps will fund game bird research, surveys, habitat improvement, and conservation projects.

Image - 2000 winner | Joe Thornbrugh

12/18/2023

12/12/2023

Citizen science project alert! We would love to have as many people participate as possible.

12/11/2023

Did you know we were featured on this past week's NBC Montana's segment Montana Moment with Kevin Maki? Check out the link below to learn more about our museum, our specimens, and what we do.

It's a low-key museum that doesn't get a lot of public attention.It's possible you may never have heard of it.But the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at the