Red-tailed Hawk with Long-billed Hawk Syndrome
This morning I found this Red-tailed Hawk on a telephone pole near Grantsville, Utah. As soon as I looked at it through my lens I knew that something was wrong with the birds beak. A bit of research almost immediately turned up the probable culprit – Long-billed Hawk Syndrome. Birds with this condition have atypical uncontrolled growth of either or both upper and lower bills. Birds affected often have secondary infections in their bills. Since their bills are used for activities such as eating, preening, killing prey and feeding offspring the syndrome is extremely serious. Most birds with this condition die of starvation. The syndrome gets its name because most affected birds have been Red-tailed Hawks, though other species of raptors get the condition also, including Peregrine Falcons and Rough-legged Hawks. The first case of LBH Syndrome was reported in Washington state in 1997 and reports have been increasing since. This is what a normal Red-tailed Hawk’s bill looks like – quite a dramatic and obvious contrast to the diseased one. The cause of this condition is unknown, though research is ongoing. A sad situation for this poor bird. More info here. Ron Addendum: I posted one of these photos on a nature phography forum and a veterinarian with many years of experience with falconry birds has stated unequivocally that this hawks condition occurred because it was “kept jessed and tethered by someone who was totally ignorant of the necessity to keep the upper and lower bill trimmed to normal shape”. Whatever the true cause of the deformity, it’s…