Q: Are bills and beaks different, and if so, how are they different?
A: The answer depends on whose answer you choose to accept.
Long before “the Donald” – the one we should have ducked, not the Disney duck – “bills v beaks in cyberspace” was already a zone of “alternative facts”.
One can use “beak” and “bill” as entirely interchangeable terms, quite legitimately.
However, common usage inclines to “beak” when referring to generally smaller, pointier bills.
When the beak is larger, flatter, with a rounder end, common usage inclines to “bill”.
Pelicans’ bills/beaks conveniently fit neither description.
I have no idea what was going on in this particular instance, but my (possibly wrong) hunch is that it was not aggression.
The apparent “victim” here in fact seemed utterly unperturbed, and this remained true a few seconds later when “Jaws” proceeded to almost-clasp the “victim’s” neck.
Wooing, perhaps?
If it was some form of courtship display, there was no evidence of its success, as the sun set on the first day of 2022.
(photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken on western side of Lake Monger at 7.08 pm on New Year’s Day)