We’ve had a lot of wonderful avian visitors to our yard this spring. Dave set up a new feeding station since we suspect that our old one was knocked down by a bear and it’s been quite a hit. There are also now two bluebird boxes in the field so this year we have an Eastern Bluebird pair! Many of our yearly visitors have returned, including the Chipping Sparrows, Gray Catbird pair, American Robin pair, Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Broad-winged Hawk, and the Red-eyed Vireo. Our Northern Cardinal and Pileated Woodpecker pairs have also been making frequent appearances.
Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Yellow-bellied Sapsucker breeding male (Image by David Horowitz)Chipping Sparrow (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
What kind of birds have been visiting your yard/area this spring? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! A special shout out goes to my husband Dave because he is celebrating his first Father’s Day as a dad! He is a wonderful father to our sweet baby boy.
We had our son in February and he has been growing so quickly. Baby Birder (I’m going to refer to him as this for privacy reasons) had his first birding experience on Mother’s Day at Mine Falls Park in Nashua. It was a lovely hike where we saw birds such as Baltimore Orioles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Wood Ducks.
The oxbow lake at Mine Falls Park on Mother’s Day (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
Since Mother’s Day, Baby Birder has been to Mine Falls 3 more times. The last time we were there we spotted a male Downy Woodpecker feeding a juvenile. I thought it would be fitting to post the short video I took for Father’s Day.
On Saturday, September 30, Dave and I went to the 3rd Annual American Birding Expo at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oak, Pennsylvania.
The American Birding Expo was founded by Bill Thompson III, the editor and publisher of Bird Watcher’s Digest. The event’s slogan is “the world of birding in one place!”. I originally heard about the Expo while listening to the podcast This Birding Life, which is hosted by Bill Thompson III (if you haven’t listened to This Birding Life you should check it out!). Dave and I live less than an hour from the expo center, so we thought it would be a great event to check out.
This 3-day event features field trips, guest speakers, travel companies, merchandise, and much more. The first section of the hall was filled with travel companies from all over the world. According to the Expo website, in 2016, over 41 countries and 42 states were represented. Some of the countries present this year were Panama, Taiwan, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, Uganda, Portugal, Mexico, and New Zealand. There were also booths for optics companies, such as Zeiss, Swarovski, Celestron, and Opticron. Organizations such as the Cape May Bird Observatory, Bird Life International, and Bird Watcher’s Digest could also be found in the first hall. We also had the chance to meet Conrad, a blue jay who lives at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.
The second hall featured artists, publishers, and shops. Julie Zickefoose, bird artist and author had a booth. She was also the Friday night featured presenter. Dave and I are a fan of bird-related art, and we ended up buying some watercolors from Ohio-based artist Jim Turanchik. Turanchik’s goal in his art is to capture the essence of birds, which I feel he does very well. The birds in his watercolors seem like they are moving. He does this by portraying them at different angles. He also has a “Birds in Flight” collection, which feature larger birds such as Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, Wood Storks, and Glossy Ibis to name a few. We purchased two watercolors, a Magnolia Warbler and a Blackburnian Warbler. You can check out his website at jturanchik.com.
(We hung the watercolors up in our dining area, which is near a small chandelier. I took this pictures on an angle because no matter what lighting I try to use you can see reflections, so sorry for the bad angles).
Magnolia Warbler watercolor by Jim Turanchik
Blackburnian Warbler watercolor by Jim Turanchik
At the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing booth, author Stephen Shunk was signing copies of the his book, Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America. As longtime blog readers know, I already own this book (and happily used it to write last fall’s Woodpecker Wednesday feature), so I got my copy signed! I found out that Stephen Shunk’s favorite woodpecker is the Lewis’s Woodpecker and we talked about Pileateds and Red-headed Woodpeckers. It was really cool to meet an author and get my book signed. He wished me “Happy Woodpecker Watching!”, which I will definitely do.
Signed by Stephen Shunk
One event that I wanted to see but didn’t was Scott Weidensaul’s presentation on Project SNOWstorm. I’m a fan of Weidensaul’s nature books, but the presentation was from 6-8, which was a little late for us since we were there in the morning. There were also morning bird hikes each day of the expo from 7-10 am. There were 5 birding locations around Philadelphia were birders could meet to take guided tours. We didn’t end up going to any of them, but we did explore one of the locations on our own after the expo.
After lunch, we drove over to the Militia Hill section of Fort Washington State Park, one of the Expo birding hotspots. The Militia Hill section features a Hawk Watch platform and is near the Wissahickon Creek. We spent some time sitting on the platform and them briefly walked around the area. Some birds we saw included an American Redstart, an Osprey, Turkey Vultures, Blue Jays, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and House Finches. It was a lovely place that I’d like to explore more one day.
View from the Militia Hill Hawk Watch Platform (Image by BirdNation)
Wissahickon Creek (Image by BirdNation)
It was still early in the day and we weren’t done with birds yet! After Militia Hill, we drove back to New Jersey and hiked around Palmyra Cove. Highlights included 2 Bald Eagles, a Green Heron, a Red-bellied Woodpecker cleaning out its hole, Wild Turkeys, and Eastern Phoebes.
September 30th was a fantastic day. We not only had a fun time at the American Birding Expo, but spent the day outside with the birds. I couldn’t have asked for a better birding day.
Today is our last Woodpecker Wednesday for the autumn season. I can’t believe winter is officially only one week away! A weekly dedication to woodpeckers was really enjoyable for me to write, but I’m also looking forward to the return of Waterfowl Wednesday. Speaking of waterfowl, on Sunday Dave and I added 4 species of waterfowl to our life list at Long Beach Island. I can’t wait to tell you all about it (post will be coming soon about that).
On November 14, 2015 I achieved one of my birding dreams: to see a Pileated Woodpecker. (It was one of my best birding moments so far, and you can read about it here at Pileated Dreams). My fascination with Pileated Woodpeckers started long before I ever saw one, and has only increased over time as I eagerly await the moment I find another one. Here are some interesting facts about this awe-inspiring bird.
The Pileated Woodpecker is the 6th largest woodpecker in the world, and the largest in North America. It’s about the size of a crow, but despite being so big it’s more often heard than seen.
Pileated in Flight (Image by NatureMan via birdsandblooms)
Like the Northern Flicker, Pileateds primarily eat ants. Their diet also consists of a variety of insects, nuts, and fruit. They occasionally eat at suet feeders. (Quick side note: if you watch Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online Feeder Cam, you can sometimes see a Pileated show up at their suet feeder. It’s quite a sight!)
They are known for making large, rectangular cavities in dead trees. Pileateds depend on a variety of habitats, but mostly mature deciduous or coniferous forests. Cavities can be deep and up to a foot long. They use the tunnels within the cavity of catch beetle larvae with their long tongues. To hammer, Pileateds pull their necks back far from the tree and pull on the trunk with their feet to make a heavy blow.
Pileated cavity at Rancocas Nature Center, NJ (Image by BirdNation)
Pileateds are pretty distinctive, so they are not usually confused with other species. Sometimes they are confused with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are larger than Pileateds, and although also jet black, have large white wing patches on the outer wing. Pileateds have large white patches under their wings. The both have bright red crests, but the Pileated has malar stripes. It’s unknown if the Ivory-billed is extinct at the moment, so it’s more than likely that you’re seeing a Pileated.
How can you tell the difference between a male and female? The male’s red crest extends down to his upper mandible, while the female’s forehead is a dusky grayish-brown. The male’s malar stripes are red and the female’s stripes are black.
They hold large territories; spanning as far as one mile or more for a single pair. Pairs are usually monogamous and mate for life. They defend their territory throughout the year. Defense strategies include raising their crest, drumming, calling, and displaying the white patch under their wings.
I hope you enjoyed Woodpecker Wednesday! What’s your favorite North American woodpecker? Tell me about it in the comments! The Pileated is mine (obviously! :-P)
We only have 3 more weeks of our autumn feature, Woodpecker Wednesday. On December 21 (the Winter Solstice), Waterfowl Wednesday will return! Today’s featured woodpecker is the Red-headed Woodpecker.
The plumage of the Red-headed Woodpecker is bold and striking. Their bellies are white, and their wings are half-black, half-white. Their round heads are bright red. There are only four sexually monochromatic woodpeckers in the world and the Red-headed Woodpecker is one of them. This means it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a male and female visually in the field. Immature Red-heads actually lack the red head. Their heads are gray-brown, and the white patch on their wings have rows of black spots.
Red-headed Woodpecker (Image by Classic Collection of North American Birds via birds-ofn-north-america.net)
Range:
Year-round from Rocky Mountain States east to the Atlantic Coast and south to Texas and Florida. Summer (breeding): from Eastern Montana to New York. Some populations winter in mid-Texas.
Habitat:
Deciduous woodlands, open forests, groves, orchards, farm country
Diet:
Considered the most omnivorous North American woodpecker. Eats nuts, insects, seeds, fruit. Sometimes they raid nests and eat eggs/nestlings. May occasionally eat mice and other adult birds. Like the Lewis’s Woodpecker, Red-heads are proficient at flycatching.
Like some other woodpeckers, Red-heads store nuts and seeds in crevices of trees. However, they are the only North American woodpecker that is known to use bark and wood as a protective covering to hide their caches.
Foraging for acorns (Image by Jim Williams via Minnesota Star Tribune)
Breeding/Nesting:
They are monogamous, usually for several years. Males will do most of the excavating on a dead tree, and if the female approves the site she will tap with him. Red-heads may have 1-2 broods per year, with usually 4-5 eggs per clutch. Both parents will incubate the eggs for 12-13 days and the young will fledge about 27-31 days after hatching. The pair may start a second brood in the same nest, but usually a separate nest while still feeding the first brood.
Sounds:
rheer, rheer squeal; racka racka chatter used for communcation between mates, a short descending rattle as a defense call. Groups call while flycatching.
Conservation:
Populations have fluctuated dramatically over the past 200 years, and have declined in the Northeast in recent years. Population loss is likely through to lack of old-growth forests and acorn crop fluctuations. The are considered Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
Fun Facts:
Red-heads are very pugnacious, and will be aggressive towards a variety of other birds, even the large Pileated Woodpecker
Their closets relatives are the Acorn and Lewis’s Woodpecker. They are all members of the genus Melanerpes.
They will store live grasshopper into tree crevices that are so tight the grasshopper can’t escape.
Sometimes Red-heads may drop nuts or pine cones on roads to be crushed by cars. Unfortunately, this leads to a relatively high rate of roadkill mortality.
Due to the striking contrast of their plumage, they are sometimes known as “the flying checkerboard”.
Today’s featured woodpecker is the American Three-toed Woodpecker.
American Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis)
Description:
American Three-toed Woodpeckers are black and white, “pied” face, and about 8 inches in length. Their plumage is more black than white. These woodpeckers are one of the two North American woodpeckers that are tridactyl, meaning they have three toes instead of four like other species (you can learn more about the different kind of bird feet here). The male’s crown is yellow and the female’s crown is all black. Adult Three-toed have a thin white eye stripe that curves downwards behind their ear. They appear to have a short bill due to elongated nasal tufts.
Male American Three-toed Woodpecker (Image by Kendall Brown via utahbirds.org)
Range:
found year-round in boreal forests from western Alaska through Canada east to Newfoundland; Rocky and Cascade Mountains in the western United States
Habitat:
Coniferous forests; especially in burned, flooded or insect-infested forests. Associated with lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, and spruce trees.
Diet:
Three-toed tend to live in areas where there are spruce bark beetles infestations, which are a large part of their diet. Other food sources include a variety of beetles, ants, arthropods, may occasionally consume sap or fruit. Forages on tree trunks will remove bark from trees to find insects.
Breeding/Nesting:
Not much is known about breeding habits. Three-toed excavate nest cavities in usually dead coniferous trees. Both sexes will work together to excavate a new cavity each year. They are monogamous during breeding season, and may possibly stay together for more than one season. Three-toed usually lay 4 eggs which are incubated for 12-14 days by both sexes. The young will fledge 22-26 days after hatching and will remain with their parents for 4-8 weeks afterwards.
Female American Three-toed Woodpecker (Image by Discovery Planet at discoveryplanet.com.au)
Sounds:
a pik!, similar to a Downy Woodpecker , one of the least vocal North American woodpeckers. Also makes rattle and twitter sounds, and can be easily identified by its drum.
Conservation:
Local populations vary; may be more abundant after fires and insect-infestations. They are generally uncommon and may be more sensitive to timber harvesting. They are considered a conservation priority throughout their range.
Fun Facts:
Three-toed breed the furthest north of any North American woodpecker species.
They are one of the most difficult woodpeckers to spot in the field and are highly sought by birders to add to their life lists. They are usually overlooked because their black plumage helps them blend in well with the charred trees they sit on. They may sit still on a trunk for long periods of time, making them easy to miss. The best time to spot them is during peak breeding season, when they are the most vocal.
In 2003, the “Three-toed Woodpecker” was split into two separate species: the American Three-toed Woodpecker and the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker. Even though they look similar, the difference occurs in their mitochondrial DNA.
Time for another Woodpecker Wednesday! Today’s featured bird is the fascinating Lewis’s Woodpecker. The species was spotted by Meriwether Lewis while camping on the Kooskooske River in Idaho in 1806 on his famed expedition with William Clark. Lewis named this species the “Black Woodpecker”, but ornithologist Alexander Wilson later renamed this woodpecker in honor of Lewis. The Lewis’s Woodpecker is unique from other woodpecker species in many ways.
Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis)
Description:
The Lewis’s Woodpecker is North America’s only green-colored woodpecker. Males and females are sexuallymonochormatic . This means that the sexes are identical, but slightly differ in size. This makes figuring out a Lewis’s sex in the field extremely difficult, unless you know the male’s vocalizations. Their backs, wings, heads, and tails are a solid greenish-black, with no white patches like other woodpecker species. Their bellies are a salmon pink or red. The Lewis’s breast and collar are a silver gray, and their faces are dark red. In flight they look black and look like a small corvid (like a jay or crow). Juveniles are darker and lack the gray collar/breast and red face.
Lewis’s Woodpecker (Image by Classic Collection of North American Birds at bird-of-north-america.net)
Range:
Scattered throughout mountainous regions of the America West. Winters in the Southwest and breeds (summers) in the Northwestern United States and parts of Western Canada.
Habitat:
Open habitats; scattered forests with large trees and numerous perches, river groves, foothills, burned forests; oak, cottonwood and ponderosa pines
Diet:
Unlike other woodpeckers, Lewis’s are aerial foragers. Although they sometimes glean insects off of tree barks, they mainly catch insects using acrobatic aerial displays like a flycatcher. This is why it’s important for their habitat to have a lot of high perches for foraging. In autumn they harvest acorns and other nuts, break them apart to store in crevices, and defends their makeshift granaries.
Breeding/Nesting:
Courtship displays by the male include bill pointing (away from the potential mate), circular flights, and wing spreading. Males will establish the territory first and the female will select the nesting cavity. Nesting cavities are used multiple years in a row, in either a natural cavity or one made by another woodpecker species. Breed pairs stay monogamous for around 4 years.
Both sexes incubate between 6-7 eggs for about 12-16. They share parenting duties once the young hatch and will both defend the nest cavity. Young fledge about 4-5 weeks after hatching and will stay with the parents awhile after.
Lewis’s Woodpecker (Image by Mac Knight via Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife)
Sounds:
During breeding, males use 3 kinds of calls: chatter (similar to a dolphin call), call notes, and screech (skeer! or keea!). They drum much less than other woodpeckers.
Conservation:
Lewis’s populations have decreased over the past few decades, making them more erratic and hard to monitor. Population declines are due to habitat destruction and fire suppression of pine forests. They are on the 2016 State of North America’s Birds’ Watch List and being watched closely by environmental groups. In Oregon, Lewis’s have been successful breeding in artificial nest boxes to help increase populations.
Fun Facts:
A Lewis’s Woodpecker specimen that is found in the Harvard Museum of Natural History is the only in-tact biological specimen from Lewis and Clark’s 1804-1806 expedition.
Lewis’s Woodpeckers can catch multiple insects on a single flight.
Most woodpeckers have a flight pattern of 3 flaps and a glide. Lewis’s flight pattern is more direct. When feeding they will glide down from a high perch. To return to a perch, the Lewis’s will flap continuously.
Hello friends! Today’s featured woodpecker is the Gilded Flicker.
Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides)
Description:
Gilded Flickers are medium-sized woodpeckers, who look similar to their cousin, the Northern Flicker. Gilded Flickers are smaller than Northern Flickers, and seem to take a characteristic of each Northern variations. Gilded Flickers have yellow wings like the “Yellow-shafted” Northern and gray heads/red malar (cheek) stripes like the “Red-shafted” Northern. Female Gilded lack the malar stripes. Unlike they Northern, they have cinnamon brown foreheads. Their upperparts are “zebra-backed” and brown. Their underparts are gray and spotted. Gilded Flickers have a black crescent-shaped spot on their chests. Their yellow wings and white rump are conspicuous in flight. Juveniles are smaller and paler than adults.
Adult Gilded Flicker (Image via CCNAB, birds-of-north-america.net)
Range:
Southwestern Arizona, northwestern Mexico, all of Baja California excluding the northwest corner. Very rare in southeastern California and southern Nevada
Habitat:
common in Sonoran habitats, desert uplands, riparian woodlands with willows and cottonwoods along streams and rivers
Food:
Mainly ants, insects, berries, nuts, seeds, fruit. Forages on the ground, along trees and cacti.
Breeding:
Males defend the territory by head/wing flicking, drumming, calling, and tail-spreading. Nest cavities are usually in saguaro cacti, but sometimes in cottonwood or willow trees. 4 to 5 eggs are incubated by both sexes for about 11 days. The young are fed mainly by regurgitation from the parents. Young fledge about 4 weeks after hatching, and will follow parents to foraging sites.
Gilded Flicker in Arizona (Image by NPS via new.science360.gov)
Sounds:
a series of kee! notes, wik-wik-wik calls, drumming
Conservation:
Gilded Flickers are considered climate-threatened. Other threats include habitat destruction, urbanization, and European Starlings competing for nest cavities. They are still fairly common in their habitat. More research is needed about this woodpecker to help maintain populations.
Fun Facts:
Gilded, “Yellow-shafted” and “Red-shafted” Flickers used to be considered one species, called the Common Flicker.
There is a small population of Gilded and “Red-shafted” Northern Flicker hybrids.
It was April 1944. Don Eckelberry,who worked for Audubon, went to Singer Tract in Madison Parrish, Louisiana on a mission. His goal was to spot a female Ivory-billed Woodpecker. A few months prior, this bird was seen by Richard Pough, who later became the first president of the Nature Conservancy. Singer Tract was a large stretch of primeval southern forest that was owned by the Singer Sewing Company. The logging rights to this forest were sold to the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company. The National Audubon Society tried to buy the land from Chicago Mill but were unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers need large sections of forest to thrive. And Singer Tract happened to be where a few of these woodpeckers were living at the time. Tragically, the forest at Singer Tract was eventually logged.
But in April 1944, Don Eckelberry did find his female Ivory-billed in Singer Tract. She was alone in an uncut area of the forest. Eckelberry wrote in a letter to John Baker, “It is sickening to see what a waste a lumber company can make of what was a beautiful forest.” Eckelberry’s observation in April 1944 was the last universally accepted sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
A photograph of Singer Tract from 1937 (Image via fws.gov/ivorybill)
And so the mystery began. Does the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still exist, or is it extinct? It’s been a topic of much debate and study over the years. There have been sightings reported, but nothing is confirmed and the evidence is almost non-existent.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is considered the third largest woodpecker in the world, at 20 inches in length and a 30 inch wingspan. It’s body is black with large white patches on its wings/neck, and a bright red crest. Historically, this species was found in the Southeastern United States from Texas east to North Carolina, north up to lower Ohio, and south to Cuba. The Cuban Ivory-billed is considered a subspecies and may also possibly be extinct. They lived in thick, uninterrupted hardwood forests and swamps that had a lot of dead and decaying trees.
A male and female switching parenting duties (Image taken by Arthur A. Allen in April 1935, via wikipedia)
What cause the decline of this species? There are multiple factors, including hunting for sport, science, and used in Native American culture/trading. However, habitat destruction throughout the early 1900’s broke up the Ivory-billed’s territory, which prevented them from being able to sustain their populations. In 1939 it was estimated that only around 24 individuals lived in the United States. The number of birds alive today, if any, is unknown.
Much of what we know comes from research in the mid-1930s. In 1935, Arthur Allen (founder of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Peter Paul Kellogg (Cornell professor), James Tanner (Cornell graduate student), George Miksch Sutton (a bird artist/ornithologist), and Jack Kuhk (a local game warden), set up camp in the swamps of Singer Tract to study the Ivory-billed. They did find a nest in a maple tree and studied it for a few weeks. They were able to capture audio and video recordings on this expedition. The recordings made by Kellogg in 1935 are still used today in recent searches.
James Tanner went back to Singer Tract between 1937 and 1939 as part of his dissertation. He was able to study these birds in-depth. In this trip he was able to observe a young woodpecker being raised by its parents for 16 days. Tanner banded this young bird, the only one of its species to ever be banded. He published The Ivory-billed Woodpecker in 1942, which featured his research and two pictures of Jack Kuhk with the chick perched on his arm and head. These were the only 2 pictures of an Ivory-billed juvenile, until a few more were discovered by Tanner’s wife Nancy in 2009. Tanner traveled a total of 45,000 miles around the southeast, but only ever found the woodpeckers at Singer Tract. He died in 1991, believing that the bird was extinct.
Jack Kuhk with the young Ivory-billed on his shoulder (Photograph taken by James Tanner in 1938, via smithsonianmag.com
There many still be hope though. Scientists are still looking, and there have been sightings in the past 20 years. The Cornell Lab searched for the woodpeckers in 2002 in Louisiana with no luck. In 2004 Gene Sparling, an Arkansas native, spotted one while kayaking in Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. This sparked interested again, so Tim Gallagher (from the Cornell Lab) and Bobby Harrison of Oakwood College in Alabama went down to “The Big Woods” in Arkansas to investigate. They sucessfully spotted one on that trip. Other employees and students of the Lab have made trips to Arkansas as well and may have seen the woodpeckers too. A search for the Cuban Ivory-billed took place in January 2016 by Tim Gallagher and Martjan Lammertink, but they yielded no results.
So the question remains: does the Ivory-billed still exist? Studies are ongoing, and at the moment there is not enough data for scientists to agree on this predicament. Only time will tell if this elusive species will be resurrected from the dead once again. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is a lesson in how human carelessness can cause destruction far beyond what we anticipate in our environment. From this experience we can learn just how important conservation is to all species. Hopefully this Ivory-billed Woodpecker can be found again one day. In the meantime, it will remain a mystery.
A male Ivory-billed Woodpecker in 1935, taken by Arthur A. Allen
A few weeks ago I was researching some interesting facts for my post World of Woodpeckers. One of the featured facts was that woodpeckers have two forward and two backwards-facing toes, making their feet zygodactyl. I already knew about the toe directions, but was unfamiliar with the term zygodactyl, so i googled it.
That’s when a whole new world opened up for me: the world of bird feet. It’s not a topic that normally comes up in conversation, but bird feet are pretty amazing. There are different kinds of feet throughout the avian world. They serve a variety of functions and tell a lot about a bird’s ecology.
Functions of avian feet include perching, locomotion, preening, feeding, carrying/holding objects, scratching, reproduction (egg rolling, displays), and heat loss regulation.
Birds are animals that are considered digitigrade. This means that they generally walk on their toes, not on their entire foot like we do. Most birds have have 4 toes, or digits, although some only have 3. Bird digits can be arranged in a few different ways.
Anisodactyl
Anisodactyl feet are the most common digit arrangement in the bird world. This means that digit number 1 (which is similar to our big toe) faces backwards and the other 3 digits face forwards. This digit arrangement is found in passerines, or perching birds. Anisodactyl feet are extremely flexible because all four digits are independent. Therefore, digit 1 can be flexed to lock the toes around a perch. That’s why you don’t see birds falling out of trees when they sleep on a branch!
Anisodactyl foot (Image via kidwings.com)
Zygodactyl
On zygodactyl feet, digits 1 and 4 face backwards while digits 2 and 3 face forward. This kind of foot in common in woodpeckers, most parrots, owls, and some other species. The shape of these feet help a bird climb up, down, and along the trunk of a tree. Parrots use their feet to hold food and bring it to their bill, in the same way that we use our hands to eat. Owls have zygodactyl feet to help them hold their prey and perch. Something unique about owls is that they can rotate their 4th digit forward.
Zygodatcyl foot (via Ferbank Science Center, Atlanta, GA)
Webbed Feet
There are 4 kinds of webbed feet, with the most common being Palmate.
In palmate feet, digit 1 is backwards and digits 2,3, and 4 are connected by webbing. Examples include ducks, geese, gulls, terns, loons, and other aquatic birds.
Semipalmate feet are found in sandpipers, plovers, herons, grouse, and avocets to name a few. These feet are similar to palmate but the webbing is smaller.
Lobate feet have a backwards digit 1 and digits 2,3, and 4 have lobes of skin surrounding them. A few species with lobate feet include coots, grebes, and phalaropes.
Totipalmate feet have all four digits connected by webbing. Some totipalmate birds are pelicans, cormorants, anhingas, boobies, frigatebirds, and gannets.
Kinds of webbed feet (Image via wikimedia commons by Darekk2)
Raptorial
Raptorial feet are found in birds of prey (raptors). The toes of these feet are called talons. They are curved with sharp nails, strong, and large. These kind of feet make raptors lethal hunters.
Bald Eagle talons (Image via pinterest.com)
Other (more uncommon) Feet
Pamprodactyl feet have the 4 digits facing forward. However, the two outer digits (1 and 4) can be rotated backwards. This kind of foot is found in swifts.
Another toe arrangement that is similar to zygodatcyl is heterodactyl. There are still 2 forward and 2 backwards, but instead digits 1 and 2 are backward and 3 and 4 are forward. This arrangement is only found in trogons.
Syndactyl feet are found in Kingfishers. Digits 2 and 3 are fused together and digit 1 is very small and backwards.
Didactyl feet are only found on ostriches. Didactyl means “two-toed”. The shape of this foot is similar to a horse’s hoof, so having along two toes aids in running and escaping predators.
Tridactyl feet have only three digits, digit one is missing. Tridactyl birds include emus,.bustards, the Northern Three-toed Woodpecker, and quails.
The anatomy of birds is a broad and fascinating subject. There are over 10,000 birds species and so many variations/adaptations to learn about. I hope to present more bird anatomy posts in the future.
In the meantime, if you have any specific birds or topics you would like to know more about please let me know in the comment section.
BirdNation 