Understanding How Birds Toes and Feet Work

Ever wonder how birds keep from falling off branches while they sleep? Or how their feet keep from freezing in the winter?

Read the article below to find the answers.

Birds Are Always on Their Toes and Feet

Humans usually have five toes on each foot, Birds' toes and feet, however, are much more utilitarian, similar to our hands. Ordinarily birds have four toes on each foot, three fanned forward and one pointed to the rear.

While our feet are pretty much the same from one person to the next, birds' feet can be quite specialized, as in webbed for swimming. Songbirds stand on their toes, not the flat of their feet as humans do.

The feet of perching birds -- sparrows, wrens, warblers, thrushes, to name a few -- can do almost anything, from walking to hopping and nimbly holding onto nearly any object.

When a bird lands on a perch, a tendon in the back of its leg tightens so the toes lock. This involuntary reflex keeps a sleeping bird from falling off a perch. The bird simply stands up and straightens its legs to unlock the tendon.

On most woodpeckers the toes are arranged with two turned forwards and two backward. This gives them better balance and stronger support for climbing or standing on rough and sometimes vertical surfaces.

The stubby legs of white-breasted nuthatches give them perfect balance no matter what their position.

Their long toes and down-turned claws adhere to the slightest rough surface, permitting them to dash headfirst down a tree in search of bugs in the bark.

And then there are hummingbirds, which do most of there feeding on the fly, so to speak.

Their feet are tiny and so weakly developed that hummers are classified as the order "Apodiformes," which literally means "without feet."

Birds' feet and toes are mostly tough tendons and bones, covered with heavily scaled skin.

There is a limited supply of nerves, blood vessels or muscles. This is why their feet do not stick to metal feeder perches when temperatures plummet.

And when songbirds roost, their belly feathers cover their feet to keep them warm. If the weather is especially cold many songbirds will squat to cover their feet as they eat.

Mother Nature has adequately provided birds with effective protection against wintry weather.

©2003 birdfeeding.org. The Bird's-Eye reView

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