Charlie600
Shutter Bug
I had the opportunity to photograph Long-tailed Ducks last weekend and quite a few of the shots I took showed what appeared to be well defined tooth like structures. I spent a lot of time this week on the web trying to educate myself. I found a number of references to lamellae - hair like structures and Pecten - comb like structures. Function was related to preening and filtering food. The information I found was rather sketchy and vague and I am still having a hard time getting my head around this observation. The "teeth" on these birds don't look like they would be much use for filtering. If I am correct, these birds include eels and fish in their diet. It seems that the structure would function more for gripping than filtering. I would appreciate comments and references to information. It would be really interesting to hear from someone who has actually handled one of these ducks. Are the lamellae as sharp and as hard as they look in the photo?