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I'm wondering if there is a standard tool to measure the bird's beak curvature.

It seems that a spherometer wouldn't work because the beaks that I'm measuring are not circular but more parabolic.

I guess something like this:

enter image description here

I feel that this can be a problem if your birds have different beak length.

What do you think?

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  • $\begingroup$ There are possibly infinite superlinear curves that may denote beak morphology. I think what you can use is the maximum slope of the curve. That would generally tell you how curvy is the beak compared to a linear one. $\endgroup$
    – WYSIWYG
    Jul 16, 2016 at 12:47
  • $\begingroup$ I was thinking about a tool that I can bring with me on the field. Not something to calculate after with photos or something else. Is this what you propose? $\endgroup$ Jul 17, 2016 at 4:12
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    $\begingroup$ Yes I was suggesting something like that. I am not aware of any tool like that. You can perhaps measure the actual beak length using a measuring tape and divide it by the direct point-to-point length (like displacement) to have an approximation of the curvature. The higher the ratio, the higher would be the curvature. For a semi-circle it would be π/2. $\endgroup$
    – WYSIWYG
    Jul 17, 2016 at 5:05
  • $\begingroup$ Bird beak morfology is often studied (try Google scholar). Aren't there any papers describing how they measure it? $\endgroup$
    – RHA
    Jul 17, 2016 at 8:17
  • $\begingroup$ They usually measure it afterwards on photos : researchgate.net/publication/… $\endgroup$ Jul 18, 2016 at 18:19

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