Gallery 7
Rhynchokinesis
(Rhynchokinesis
is the ability possessed by some birds to flex their upper mandible)
The following photographs
are taken by
Robert Inglis (Bar-tailed Godwits and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers), Chris Barnes (Terek
Sandpiper) and Niven McCrie (Swinhoe's Snipe) and illustrate some rarely observed shorebird behaviour.
Several
shorebird species are able to flex their upper mandible upwards or
downwards, starting from some point along the upper mandible. This process
is known as "rhynchokinesis" and is rarely photographed.
The following
two photographs of Bar-tailed Godwits show both upward and downward flexing.
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Bar-tailed
Godwit
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Bar-tailed
Godwit |
The next two
photographs of a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper show the upward flexing of the
upper mandible, possibly not previously recorded for this species.
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Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper
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Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper |
The next two
photographs show a Terek Sandpiper and a Swinhoe's Snipe flexing their upper mandibles upwards.
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Terek
Sandpiper
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Swinhoe's Snipe
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Finally, one more
photograph from Robert Inglis. Not another
example of rhynchokinesis but an image of an Eastern Curlew regurgitating a
pellet of undigested food material.
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Eastern
Curlew
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