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Science 5 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5540, p. 15
DOI: 10.1126/science.294.5540.15a
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Editors' Choice: Highlights of the recent literature
Classically, the shapes and sizes of birds' bills are held to be adaptations to the type of food they eat. Clayton and Walther show that a second selective factor may be operating as well. For 52 species of Peruvian birds, they measured the abundance and diversity of ectoparasitic chewing lice that were infesting the birds' plumage. The abundance of lice was less in birds in which the upper mandible overhung the lower. An overhanging bill appears to be a more efficient tool for shearing lice by pressing them against the host's body. Thus, parasite infestation may be a selective force acting on bills, such that their morphologies might represent a compromise between the optimal shapes for feeding and for preening. -- AMS
Oikos 94, 455 (2001).
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
