It had been three months since Aldo’s beak was last trimmed and it was clear he needed another touch-up. The tip of the beak had grown long and his tomial tooth extended far below his bottom bill.
Birds don’t have teeth, so this unique feature of falcon beaks is poorly named. The tomial tooth is not a tooth at all; it is simply a notch in the corner of the hook. Compare that shape to the smooth line on the inside edge of the hawk beak. While this small notch gives me a challenge to shape when trimming Aldo’s beak, it helps falcons quickly dispatch their prey. The notch fits into the vertebrae of their bird or mouse meal and snaps the neck quickly, allowing the falcon to fly off without struggling with its prey. It must be a useful tool, especially considering falcons’ long, slender toes that might not have the power needed to kill prey with their feet alone. Another small meat-eater (one that has no talons at all) takes advantage of having tomial teeth: northern shrikes!
I carefully studied photos of the shape and position of the tomial tooth before trimming Aldo’s beak. I was reassured by knowing that the notches will grow back on their own if I don’t shape them properly, but I wanted to give him a proper falcon beak. Since I had worked on his beak two times before, I felt more confident as I dremeled away the excess keratin. This time he ended up with two intact, correctly-positioned tomial teeth, ready to slice through his mouse reward.
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