Birds use their beaks for just about everything. They use their beaks for making nests, feeding their young, grooming their feathers, defending themselves and eating. The beaks are different according to what the birds eats and does.
Birds do not have teeth. The biting, tearing and chewing of food are done by their beaks.
Types of Beaks
Hooked Beaks
Some birds like eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, vultures and buzzards, have hooked beaks. The upper part of the beak curves down over the lower part and comes to a sharp point. These beaks help the birds for catching, biting and tearing the flesh of their prey.
Conical Beaks
Birds that eat nuts and seeds have short and conical beaks. They help the bird to crack open the hard shell eat the soft inner food. Sparrows, finches, cardinals, grosbeaks and juncos have this type of cracker style beaks.
Tweezer Beaks
Some birds eat insects. They have thin tweezer-like beaks to pick up and hold on to the small insects. Warblers, wrens and orioles are birds with this type of beaks.
Strainer Beaks
Ducks and other water birds who eat water plants and aquatic invertebrates. So they have strainer beaks. These beaks filter food out from the mouthfuls of water, sand and other water debris.
Sipping Beaks
Sipping beaks are long and slender. They are like a straw to such nectar from flowers. Hummingbirds, sunbirds, etc., have sipping beaks.
Spear Beaks
Herons, terns, kingfishers, egrets and other fish-eating birds have spear-like beaks. They help the bird to stab or strike fish. Some dive at the fish while some others stand in the water waiting for prey to come near them.
Probing beaks
Some beaks look similar but they serve different purposes. Spear beaks and probing beaks look similar. But they are different. Probing beaks of the ibis, curlew, snipe, and godwit are slenderer. These birds use their beaks to probe for worms, insects, etc. in muddy and shallow water.
SPECIAL BEAKS
Pelicans have pouched beaks that hold fish and up to eleven litres of water. Pelicans have pouches in their beaks which expand when they need. As the pelican floats on water, it scoops up the water using their beaks as a pouch. The fishes passing by get picked up. The pouch contracts, draining out the water and the fish remain in the pouch. The bird eats those fish.
Woodpeckers have strong, sturdy and chisel–shaped beaks. Those beaks can make holes into tree trunks to search for insects living under the bark. Woodpeckers have a long and barbed tongue. After the woodpecker makes a hole in the tree trunk, it uses its tongue to capture and bring out the insects.