Deformities striking more Alaska crows

By The Associated Press

	AP A Northwestern crow with a deformed beak is shown in Alaska. Deformities there are on the rise.
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JUNEAU, Alaska — A bird-beak deformity first recorded among black-capped chickadees near Anchorage has been increasingly seen in crows in Southeast Alaska, broadening an already-mysterious phenomenon.

Black-capped chickadees, Northwestern crows and 27 other species of birds in Alaska have been reported with beaks up to three times their normal length. The deformity often strikes mature birds and reduces their ability to feed and preen effectively. In many birds, the deformity leads to death.

"We don't know what's causing the problem," said Colleen Handel, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. She has been studying the beak deformities for five years.

Though the phenomenon was first noticed in black-capped chickadees in the early 1990s, a deformed raven, a deformed Steller's jay and several deformed crows have been reported in Southeast Alaska since 1997. Sightings in the region have increased this year, biologists told the Juneau Empire.

The center has received 1,600 reports of the deformity in black-capped chickadees and 200 reports of it in other birds in Alaska, compared with only 12 reports of the deformity in black-capped chickadees in the rest of North America.

Those deformities could have been caused by genetic mutations. Damaged DNA could be implicated in the abnormal growth, Handel said, but no one knows what might be causing damage to the DNA.

"With such a broad geographic range, you look for something that could be occurring over a broad area, and that immediately calls to mind something like contaminants or a disease organism that could be affecting a large area," he said.

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