The report published on Thursday in the US journal Science compared beak length among great tits in Britain and the Netherlands, where bird feeders are less common. “Between the 1970s and the present day, beak length has got longer among the British birds. Researchers screened DNA from more than 3,000 birds in order to uncover genetic differences between the British and Dutch populations. Changes in specific gene sequences in the British birds were found to closely match human genes that determine face shape. Researchers discovered that birds with genetic variants for longer beaks were more frequent visitors to feeders than birds without the genetic variation.

Source: The Guardian October 19, 2017 22:07 UTC