The seed eaters

The house sparrow is another bird with the hard ridge in its mouth to assist in cracking seeds.

The white object is its tongue.

Lots of birds coming in for water these days.

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. July 27, 2025

 Finches, sparrows, cardinals, grosbeaks and others have muscular, conical bills. The.upper jaw's hard palate (roof of the mouth) is heavily keratinized—with ridges or bumps—that works like a cracking surface against the lower jaw to shell seeds efficiently

Many granivores possess specialized  tomial structures—the cutting edges of the mandibles—with ridges or serrations that slice through seed hulls.

Passer domesticus

House Sparrows in flocks have a pecking order much the way chickens in a farmyard do. You can begin to decipher the standings by paying attention to the black throats of the males. Males with larger patches of black tend to be older and dominant over males with less black. By wearing this information on their feathers, sparrows can avoid some fights and thereby save energy.