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How much control has a bird of its digits? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ted Y.
- Start date
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I have no idea, what this means?
Hello @Mono , hello @delia todd
Maybe it is not the good forum, but I do not know another.
If you know a better place for this thread, please place it there and delete this post. Thank you.
Maybe it is not the good forum, but I do not know another.
If you know a better place for this thread, please place it there and delete this post. Thank you.
I've seen raptors show amazing dexterity when catching prey - Eurasian hobbies catching dragonflies for instance. They make it look so easy - a fast glide up to the target, a little swerve and then coasting away as they fastidiously remove wings and other inedibles. But when you consider the senses that dragonflies have - 360-degree vision and see the world at something like 200+ images per second, optimised to detect and capture their own prey - it's amazing. Imagine trying to catch a dragonfly by hand!
Falconers use the term "footing" to describe the ability that trained hawks have to grasp their quarry, with a "good footer" being one that has a knack for getting a good grip on its prey (which can often be agile, wriggly and have various other defences - loose feathers that come away easily and so on). Aerial food passes, where adult peregrines or hobbies force their young to chase after them and either grab food out of their parents' talons or in some cases have the food dropped to them for them to capture in mid-air, are supposed to be a kind of training to improve "footing". I've seen, on at least a couple of occasions, young peregrines fumble the initial catch and either need a second or even third try to secure the falling food item, or have the adult streak by to grab the piece of food before it's lost. So this ability isn't purely inborn but needs to be perfected.
Falconers use the term "footing" to describe the ability that trained hawks have to grasp their quarry, with a "good footer" being one that has a knack for getting a good grip on its prey (which can often be agile, wriggly and have various other defences - loose feathers that come away easily and so on). Aerial food passes, where adult peregrines or hobbies force their young to chase after them and either grab food out of their parents' talons or in some cases have the food dropped to them for them to capture in mid-air, are supposed to be a kind of training to improve "footing". I've seen, on at least a couple of occasions, young peregrines fumble the initial catch and either need a second or even third try to secure the falling food item, or have the adult streak by to grab the piece of food before it's lost. So this ability isn't purely inborn but needs to be perfected.
Welsh Peregrine
Well-known member
What about the dexterity of a drumming Black Cockatoo?
You name it and someone has written a paper on it!
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Mechanical analysis of avian feet: multiarticular muscles in grasping and perching
The grasping capability of birds' feet is a hallmark of their evolution, but the mechanics of avian foot function are not well understood. Two evolutionary trends that contribute to the mechanical complexity of the avian foot are the variation in the ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
