With their ability to fly, birds have many advantages over earthbound animals. But flying takes a lot of energy, or fuel. And the bird has to get this fuel from his food sources. Food is fuel to a bird, much like gasoline is fuel to a jet airplane.
But the type of fuel that they eat can't be too bulky or it would add unwanted weight to their bodies and hinder their flight. The best foods for a bird is something that is small but yet dense in nutrients. And that food is seeds.
Seeds are some of the more nutritionally dense food around. In fact, seeds tend to be so nutritious, that many birds will eat only seeds as long as they are available. If seeds are sparse, then many might switch to secondary sources of foods such as insect, fruits, and the like. And these food sources, while valuable, don't pack the condensed energy value of seeds.
Over the years, many plants seeing their seeds devoured by millions of birds for their nutrients, have developed defenses to thwart them. One type of defense has been to develop a hard shell around the seed which cannot be breached without tremendous efforts. In response, some of the birds that feed on these seeds have developed extraordinary strong beaks with the capacity to exert hundreds of pounds onto a shell that easily crack it.
Other plants have taken an alternative approach. They have evolved with spiny needles around their shells which prick anyone who attempts to extract the seed from within. In response to this, many birds developed special slender beaks that enable it to avoid the spines and reach the seed inside.
Over the centuries, other plants have changed the flavor of their seeds to the point where they have extremely unpleasant tastes and odors. The point being to dissuade birds from wanting to eat them. Unfortunately, however, most birds have a very limited number of taste buds in their tongue, so the taste doesn't really bother them.
And, still other plants have developed poisonous seeds. In response, certain birds have learned to ingest foods which neutralize the poisons along with the poisonous seeds. This way they remain unaffected.
Over the centuries this has resulted in a near constant state of warfare as plants evolve with defenses to protect their seeds from birds and birds evolve to counteract the most recent plant defense. This, in large part, accounts for the huge number of beak styles that you will see within various bird species.
Many veteran bird watchers are often able to tell a lot from a bird, even if they are unfamiliar with it, by simply looking carefully at the shape and structure of its beak.
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