Birds like northern cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and purple finches have thick, short beaks designed for breaking open seeds with ease. The next time a bird lands at your ...

The birds have been named for Darwin ... the ground finch has a short beak adapted for eating seeds buried under the soil, and the tree finch has a parrot-shaped beak suited for stripping bark ...

How fast does the beak move? To answer these questions, I’m recording high-speed X-ray videos of the feeding birds. Interestingly, I discovered some fascinating differences in beak movement ...