Bird
Identification -
Bird Legs and Feet
We have our body, let's look at legs/feet.
Webbed
feet and claws, and long legs vs short legs can be good
field marks. For birds that walk along the ground, foot
identification can be useful in identifying tracks. The
average bird foot has four toes (the technical name for
that condition is anisodactyly), and typically
the first big toe (the hallux) is turned backward, while
the other three toes face forward.
A bird
with very long legs will probably spend a lot of time in
the water. Long legs allow them to wade around, but keep
their body feathers dry. A bird who lives in the trees wouldn't
need long legs. A woodpecker would need legs and feet for
grasping onto the sides of trees.
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Bird
Feet
There are many different types of feet found on birds. Depending
on where and how that bird lives, the feet can seem very
specialized to it's life. They help the bird to fill a special
niche in the animal kingdom.
There
are even more foot types than what we will look at here,
but this is a good start. |
Let's start with a common bird - a
mallard duck. We usually see them in wet,
marshy areas.
Waterfowl
feet are varied. One difference, is the amount of webbing,
as seen between the goose and the mallard.
The
coot has lobed toes. |
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Cranes,
herons and egrets
are also regularly seen on refuge marshes. Their legs are
long, allowing them to walk in the shallow marshes. Egrets
and herons perch and nest in trees. The absense of webbing
allows perching.
Songbirds
often have feet that resemble the egret feet - they are
small and have a special mechanism that allows them to sleep
while perched on tree limbs without falling off in the middle
of the night. |
Shorebirds also inhabit areas with water.
The long legs on the small birds are evidence that they
live around water; long legs are good for walking in water
without getting the body wet.
Shorebirds
will usually be found in very shallow water or mud flats. |
Some shorebird feet are webbed, while others are not. One
of the main similarities between shorebird feet is that the
toes are seperated, evenly distributing the weight of the
bird, to keep the bird from sinking into the wet sand. |
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The
next set of feet may seem to resemble those above, but turkey
feet and roadrunner feet are adapted to moving
on the ground. These birds spend most of their lives on the
ground, moving by foot, rather than flying. Their habitat,
due to their ground-dwelling behavior, requires lots of open
space on the ground. |
| They
have thick, strong toes with well developed nails, perfect
for scratching the ground. |
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| Raptors
are birds of prey - hawks, owls, falcons and eagles. |
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Raptor
feet have talons. The talons are long, large and hooked -
assisting them as birds of prey. The feet of the birds are
able to close tightly to carry things in flights and also
to use the talons to pull prey apart. These feet are also
adapted to perching on tree limbs, but would not be particularly
suited for swimming. |
Building
our Bird
So, let's continue to build our bird. We had the body previously,
now we need to decide on legs and feet. |
I
have chosen long legs for a bird that lives in the marsh.
I'll
set my bird's legs far back on the body so that it can walk
around tall. |
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The bird's
feet are slightly webbed so that it can easily walk on the
mud around the water, but I want my bird to be able to perch
in trees, so I don't want too much webbing. |
Let's
move on to our head and beak.
Keep
building our bird........ |
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Learn
more about bird feet. |
