U.S. Geological Survey scientists say they haven't been able to determine the cause, but the deformed beaks could signal a growing environmental-health problem.

Research biologist Colleen Handel says the prevalence of the deformities is more than 10 times above what is normally expected in a wild bird population.

Affected birds include black-capped chickadees and northwestern crows.

Scientists call it "avian keratin disorder," in which the keratin layer of the beak becomes overgrown, resulting in elongated and often crossed beaks.

The deformities affect birds' ability to feed and clean themselves.

Continue Reading...

Environmental and Alaska Native groups, meanwhile, reacted with gratitude.

Obama announced Thursday that proposed lease sales off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and the Gulf Coast will be delayed or canceled. Arctic drilling would not be considered until 2011.

Shell Oil has been poised to drill three exploratory wells this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and two in the Beaufort Sea off the state's north coast.

Republican Rep. Don Young called the Obama administration's decision irrational and careless, a response to interest groups following the massive oil spill from a BP PLC well in the Gulf of Mexico. That spill has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the nation's worst.

"The kind of event that happened in the gulf, while tragic, is so uncommon," Young said in a written statement. "It is akin to an American jetliner crashing. If a plane goes down, we don't stop flying."

He said the right response would have been to figure out what went wrong and correct the problem.

Continue Reading...