![\"ring-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ring-necked-pheasant-1954-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYesterday morning at Farmington Bay I photographed\u00a0this male Ring-necked Pheasant with a grotesquely deformed and overgrown mandible.\u00a0 These images, though poor in quality, show the problem clearly.<\/p>\n
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By the time I got my pickup stopped and my lens out the window the bird was buried in the vegetation but the head and bill are clear enough that you can see the problem.\u00a0 The upper mandible is hugely overgrown and deformed.\u00a0 I’m absolutely amazed that it’s been able to eat well enough to survive but this\u00a0male looked fat and sassy and acted normally.\u00a0 These birds eat seeds, grasses,\u00a0leaves, roots, fruits, nuts\u00a0and insects and it’s my guess that each of those would be difficult for it to\u00a0consume in this condition except possibly\u00a0for leaves and grasses which it might be able to grasp and strip off, even with this deformity.\u00a0 So\u00a0perhaps that’s how it seems to be thriving.<\/p>\n
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![\"ring-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ring-necked-pheasant-1958-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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A different hugely cropped image gives us another look.<\/p>\n
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![\"red-tailed-hawk-3311](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-3311-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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I’ve had some\u00a0experience with other birds in the past with similar problems and believe\u00a0the pheasant may have what’s called\u00a0“long-billed hawk syndrome”.\u00a0 The name comes from the fact that the condition was first identified in raptors but it is now being found in a variety of other species.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Several years ago I photographed this adult Red-tailed Hawk near Grantsville, Utah and both of its mandibles were overgrown and misshapen.\u00a0 It was still hunting and eating well (I\u00a0watched it catch and eat several voles) but I was concerned and ignorant about what was going on so I made some contacts with knowledgeable people and that was when I learned about this alarming condition.<\/p>\n
More information about long-billed hawk syndrome here<\/a> if you’re interested.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday morning at Farmington Bay I photographed this male Ring-necked Pheasant with a grotesquely deformed and overgrown mandible. These images show the problem clearly. <\/p>\n