Many of us have struggled with chopsticks – now imagine using them blindfolded. That’s effectively what wading birds do when they push their bills into mud to probe for worms, bivalve molluscs and other invertebrates. This is an enormously abundant, protein-rich resource – provided you can reach it.
“If you’re a long-billed shorebird such as a godwit, curlew, snipe, redshank, knot or dunlin, vision has little to do with feeding, other than glancing sideways to check if other birds near you have found a productive spot,” says wader aficionado Graham Appleton (www.wadertales.wordpress.com). “These waders have high-set eyes – perfect for spotting predators, rather than for looking down their beaks.”
Instead, Graham says, the birds make use of selectively bendy bills. “They have a remarkable ability known as distal rhynchokinesis, which…
