Show Us Your Bird Fossils!

[caterpillar]

My little contribution to the post

Eggshells from lutetian of southwest France

 

[juan]

My only one (but one of my favourite fossils) bird fossil:

Feather from Pliocene of Italy.

[siteseer]

I collect mostly shark teeth but also have a mix of various groups.  Here's a bird beak from the Late Pleistocene, tar pit site, McKittrick, Kern County, CA.  It's about 2 5/8 inches (67mm) long.  I'm attaching one photo taken some time ago and one taken yesterday.  It might look like two different specimens but it's the same one.  It might be a vulture beak.  Maybe @Auspex @jpc @fossillarry or others who have examined bird fossils can add a comment.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by siteseer

[siteseer]

Here's another Late Pleistocene tar pit beak from Kern County though the locality wasn't given (either Maricopa or McKittrick - probably the latter).  This one is about 1 13/16 inches (45mm) measured along its longest dimension with 3 views of it.  I think it could be a large hawk or owl beak.

[siteseer]

Here's a large raptor claw core also from a tar seep site at McKittirick.  It's just over 1 3/8 inches (35mm) long.  A friend had one over 1 3/4 inches.  That was the biggest one I'd seen from the tar pits.

 

 

[siteseer]

With bird bones you're lucky to find a decent bone end because they're so fragile.  I've tried to pick up bird bones in trades or at shows just to be able to ID parts of the skeleton.  This is a bird humerus from the late Pleistocene of Manacor, Mallorca, Spain.  It's just over 2 1/8 inches long.

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by siteseer
added length

[jpc]

On 1/5/2022 at 4:56 AM, siteseer said:

I collect mostly shark teeth but also have a mix of various groups.  Here's a bird beak from the Late Pleistocene, tar pit site, McKittrick, Kern County, CA.  It's about 2 5/8 inches (67mm) long.  I'm attaching one photo taken some time ago and one taken yesterday.  It might look like two different specimens but it's the same one.  It might be a vulture beak.  Maybe @Auspex @jpc @fossillarry or others who have examined bird fossils can add a comment.

 

 

Have you compared this with Pleistocene condors found at La Brea?  The huge nasal opening and slight hook tells me vulturine, but I am not any sort of expert. 

[Auspex]

On 1/5/2022 at 4:56 AM, siteseer said:

I collect mostly shark teeth but also have a mix of various groups.  Here's a bird beak from the Late Pleistocene, tar pit site, McKittrick, Kern County, CA.  It's about 2 5/8 inches (67mm) long.  I'm attaching one photo taken some time ago and one taken yesterday.  It might look like two different specimens but it's the same one.  It might be a vulture beak.  Maybe @Auspex @jpc @fossillarry or others who have examined bird fossils can add a comment.

 

 

I think it is from a Vulture (not one of the giant ones).

[Auspex]

On 1/5/2022 at 5:09 AM, siteseer said:

Here's another Late Pleistocene tar pit beak from Kern County though the locality wasn't given (either Maricopa or McKittrick - probably the latter).  This one is about 1 13/16 inches (45mm) measured along its longest dimension with 3 views of it.  I think it could be a large hawk or owl beak.

Some sort of Parrot, me thinks. NICE!

[siteseer]

13 hours ago, jpc said:

Have you compared this with Pleistocene condors found at La Brea?  The huge nasal opening and slight hook tells me vulturine, but I am not any sort of expert. 

 

No, but like Chas said, those are huge.  I've been to the George Page museum.  One of the big ones had a radius the same length as mine.

[siteseer]

12 hours ago, Auspex said:

Some sort of Parrot, me thinks. NICE!

 

Well, that would be weird as parrots are not known from the tar pits (McKittrick, Maricopa, Carpinteria, nor Rancho La Brea) as far as I know.  I will have to check some papers.

[siteseer]

Here's a bone just over 4 1/16 inches (10.3cm) from the late Pliocene (Blancan) Broadwater Formation, Broadwater area, western Nebraska.  The preservation is fantastic.  I got this with a couple of mammal specimens but this is the one I've hung onto.  I think it's a radius and @fossillarry thought it was from a duck.  He welcomed other opinions at the time.