It's no sweat for salt marsh sparrows to beat the heat if they have a larger bill

Birds use their bills largely to forage and eat, and these behaviors strongly influence the bill's shape and size. But the bill can play an important role in regulating the bird's body temperature by acting as a radiator for excess heat. A team of scientists have found that because of this, high summer temperatures have been a strong influence in determining bill size in some birds, particularly species of sparrows that favor salt marshes.

Russell Greenberg, Raymond Danner, Brian Olsen, David Luther. High summer temperature explains bill size variation in salt marsh sparrows. Ecography, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2011.07002.x

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