In August of 1998, while birding in the woods, we (my sister, Chandra, and I)came across a small flock of chickadees that contained several of the chickadees that we had hand-tamed the winter before. A few of the chickadees were still tame and came to our hands for sunflower seeds. Several of the other chickadees in the flock became tame over the next several days, including one that was different; she was deformed.
We are not sure if this chickadee hatched deformed, or if she had a tragic experience while still in the nest, or what. Her "upper mandible" (top part of the beak) was very, very short, and had a rough edge, as if it has been broken off somehow. Her "lower mandible" (bottom part of the beak) was of normal length, but was curved up at the end. The lower mandible probably curled upward due to a lack of a normally-lengthed upper mandible to keep it straight. Her bill was not the only deformity; her left leg and foot were also not right. The leg was crooked and had a large joint, and three of the toes on that foot did not function much, if at all.
Chandra and I decided to call this chickadee "Knubbles". From Fall through Spring, we fed Knubbles by hand, along with the other chickadees in her flock. Knubbles quickly learned that she could save precious time and energy if she only took the hulled seeds, when possible; it took her twice as long to get the hulls off and eat the sunflower seeds, than it did the other chickadees. When we would go into the woods to feed the chickadees, we oftentimes took extra hulled seeds, just for her, although several other chickadees also preferred hulled sunflower seeds. Knubbles would also go to the bird feeders. If we were over there restocking the feeders, she would oftentimes come to our hands to get hulled sunflower seeds. If there was a full feeder right there, she would still come to us instead. It was hard for Knubbles to eat out of most of the feeders, with the exception of the platform feeders.
Throughout the Fall and Winter, and on through Spring, unfortunately, her bill grew. By April, Knubbles had a very long lower mandible, between 1/2 and 3/4 inch long! She had to turn her head sideways to pick up a seed, and it would take her several tries before he would actually get good enough hold to take the seed. It was also a lot harder for her to eat the seed after she got it from our handsl. Things were not looking good for Knubbles.
In May, when all of the chickadees had paired off and were at least beginning to breed, Knubbles was part of a group of four chickadees which were hanging out together. I assume that one of them was her mate (wether or not they bred), and the other two were another pair of chickadees; I'm not sure if any of them bred or not. For whatever reason, these chickadees did not fight, even though it was the breeding season. They foraged together, but I'm not sure what they did when it was baby-raising time; after warbler migration, it got hot and humid a lot, so we stopped hiking in the woods for a while.
In late July of 1999, when we began to bird in the woods regularly again, we came across a flock of chickadees on our property, again, that contained several tame ones. We were pleasantly surprised to find one of them to be Knubbles! And -- her beak was short again, almost exactly the same length as it had been a year before, when we first met her!
Knubbles was still very tame, and came to our hands for seed. She still preferred hulled seeds -- which we provided -- but life was much easier for her than it was this spring, when her beak was so long. Knubbles was also not a low-ranking individual; she chased some of the other chickadees off of our hands!
As of now (Sept. 1999), Knubbles' beak is still fairly short, the same length as it was one year ago. She is getting around very well, and as long as the seeds she takes are hulled, she can eat easly, and even caches more seeds for eating at a later date. We are hoping that her beak will not grow very much in the coming months, but only time will tell. She has a very good chance of making it through another winter!
You may be thinking, "How do you know that Knubbles is a she and not a he?" Well, the truth is, we don't! Knubbles just seems like a her, and not a him. Also, we noted this spring that Knubbles never sang the two-note whistled song that other male chickadees were singing constantly (it seemed!) this spring.
