@CheeseChameleon2007 Hummingbirds, even the ones with smaller bills, have very long tongs anyway and drink nectars. Bee-eaters are insect hunters, a normal specimen would pick it up between its two mandibles and use its tong to swallow it. In the case of the bird on the picture, one can imagine how hard that task would be.
@Rayane Very true. But is this natural shown on the picture? Or is it a deformation of some sort? If this was normal and happened in the wild, it would just be easier to catch insects from afar, right?
@CheeseChameleon2007 As talked about here and on the thread, it is an overgrown beak, it's not natural and no, that's not how it works, otherwise the evolution of bee-eaters would have let them with longer beaks.
@CheeseChameleon2007 Beaks are ever-growing, albeit very slowly. This is because they naturally experience wear and tear as the bird feeds, cleans its bill, excavates a nest cavity, etc. Under natural circumstances you will almost never see an overgrown bill, it's worn down roughly about as fast as it grows. In captivity, wrong food items, lack of rough cleaning surfaces, or other circumstances will not wear down the bill properly. This then manifests as a deformity of bill shape, and can lead to the death of the bird. Death usually only occurs when the beak gets so malformed the bird cannot feed itself. It is quite possible to trim* the bill back into proper shape, however it is much easier to do with say a large parrot than a bee-eater. I have seen overgrown beaks most often in parrots, which usually means the bird has not been fed a proper diet with enough large nuts.
(Trimming is typically done with a small dremel, very gently and carefully under slow speed to avoid causing any damage to the bird.)
Sidenote, this can happen to captive pufferfish, triggerfish, and filefish as well if they are not given hard-shelled foods occasionally.
