An Unfortunate Grackle

Feeding the Blue Jays a little while ago, a peculiar-looking dark bird caught my eye hanging around at the bottom of a cabbage palm. Something about it didn't seem right, and my immediate impression was that the base of the mandible might have been flared, like an Ani's. A Smooth-billed Ani right at my doorstep? Stranger things have been known to happen, I suppose.

But no such luck, for either myself or for the bird. What I had here was a juvenile Common Grackle with a grotesque bill deformity. Tumor-like nodules covered most of both the upper and lower mandibles. Possibly, they grew out of the forehead, too - some of the head feathers looked disheveled.

It was hanging around an adult Common Grackle, which occasionally fed him, so he's still being cared for despite his obvious disadvantages. Whether anyone besides a mother could love that face, I'd be interested to know. 

Poor little guy. If anyone has any information about what condition this is, or what causes it, please let us know in the comments.

Brown Thrasher With An Unusually Long Bill

This afternoon at A.D. Barnes, in Miami, we came across a Brown Thrasher with an unusually long bill -- like, several times too long. Unfortunately, none of the pictures convey its full magnitude, because they're either taken at an angle, or the tip is obstructed. If anybody knows any conditions that might be responsible for this, or whether abnormalities of this nature are at all common for thrashers, or mimids, generally, please  let us know in the comments.

UPDATE:
For anyone interested, Bill Pranty has been kind enough to share two articles on the subject of abnormal bill length in Florida's Brown Thrashers:

http://www.fosbirds.org/FFN/PDFs/FFNv04n1p11-13Brown.pdf
http://www.fosbirds.org/FFN/PDFs/FFNv01n2p6-8Taylor.pdf