Beak or Bill Is there a difference?
Beak or bill? Which is correct? Both are. When talking about birds, these words are synonyms. You can use either word for the structure around any bird’s mouth.
However, what you might find is that many birders use the word ‘beak’ when talking about songbirds. Birds like robins, cardinals, Blue Jays, goldfinches.
And it follows these same birders will use ‘bill’ when talking about ducks, geese, and swans. So, it seems that the more fleshy or wider these structures are, the more likely they will be called ‘bills’. But remember, if you say a Mallard has a beak and a woodpecker has a bill, you are not wrong – I repeat, the words are synonymous.
What about birds like Great Blue Herons? Great Horned Owls? Killdeer? Bald Eagles? Wild Turkeys? In my experience talking to other birders, ‘beak; and ‘bill’ are used about equally with these species and others similar to them.
Ornithologists – the real experts and professionals – most often use ‘beak’ for songbirds and ‘bill’ for ducks, geese and swans. If you get a chance to talk to one of these people, keep that in mind.
And here is an old joke I remember from when I first started birding and asked this very question. I wrote it down in my birding notebook because I never wanted to forget it. I was at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida, and was trying to identify all sorts of water fowl and songbirds and was in way over my head. I did ask a birder who was close-by what the difference was between a beak and a bill and this is what he told me:
“A duck went into a drugstore to buy some chapstick and the cashier said, “How are you going to pay for it?” And the duck says, “ …………… wait for it …………………… “Put it on my bill!”
And yes, I still find that funny! So you can picture me sitting at my desk, typing this, and grinning!