"Some animals with injuries, frailties or differences don't fare as well. We like to say nature is cruel, but I prefer to think of it as determined. Birds can have beak abnormalities for a number of reasons, including physical trauma, poor nutrition, exposure to pesticides and other contaminants, disease and infection, and congenital malformation. We can't know for certain what caused the damage to your visiting house finch, but from the photo you took, it looks to me more like an injury."
"They have a central dark stripe and orange stripes on either side, and have long black spikes on them. Could this vine be an annual breeding ground for the caterpillars? Also, the vine seems to be getting stressed by this activity. You might be seeing monarchs flying around, but the caterpillars are not future monarch butterflies. Monarch caterpillars have rounded bodies with horizontal white, green and black stripes, and they are smooth bodied. What I think you're seeing are gulf fritillary caterpillars."
A female house finch visiting backyard feeders displays a severely deformed beak with an elongated lower mandible and a small upper mandible. Potential causes include physical trauma, poor nutrition, exposure to pesticides or contaminants, disease, infection, and congenital malformation. The observed morphology and photo suggest an injury such as collision or entrapment, after which the bird adapted feeding by scooping seeds and remains otherwise healthy. Separately, numerous caterpillars observed on a clematis vine are likely gulf fritillary larvae rather than monarchs. Monarch caterpillars have smooth bodies with horizontal white, green, and black stripes, while gulf fritillary caterpillars possess central dark and orange stripes with long black spikes that can stress host plants.
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