Under these drastically changing conditions, the struggle to survive favored the larger birds with deep, strong beaks for opening the hard seeds. Smaller finches with less-powerful beaks perished.

I spotted this rook with a very unusual beak in Galway city lately. Despite the unusual shape it seemed very healthy and was ...

Patrick O’Connor at Ohio University, who worked on the analysis, says two features of the almost complete skull only ever occur in modern birds. First, the upper beak is primarily comprised of a ...

Medium ground finches with larger beaks could take advantage of alternate food sources because they could crack open larger seeds. The smaller-beaked birds couldn't do this, so they died of ...

Some birds may have beaks that are adapted for a combination of food sources. Also, beak shape is just one factor that determines a bird's diet. Other factors, such as their size, habitat, and ...