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Another Red-tail Question (1 Viewer)

Maljunulo

Well-known member
Has anyone seen Red-tailed Hawks put one foot or both feet down into the slipstream for a few seconds while gliding or soaring?

I have observed this behavior a few times and wonder who else has. The birds were not carrying anything.

My guess is that they are using a foot or both feet as speed brakes, to induce a controlled amount of drag, when they want to slow down slightly.

Anyone?
 
I don't think I've seen that behavior in red-tails - when I see them they're usually either far overhead (making it hard to see leg position) or perched/launching/landing (in which case the feet are out for obvious reasons).
But I guess they're not always doing it for drag. Dropping a leg is a slow and inelegant way of getting drag, compared to very slightly adjusting the angle of wing or tail. They might be doing it to cool off, by getting extra airflow over the veins in their legs and feet.
Or they may just be stretching their leg muscles.
 
I've seen them soaring with feet down. I thought they were carrying something, but they weren't.

Recently, I saw one gliding "on final" for a landing in a tree, which coincidentally had the bird headed straight toward me.

It put one foot down briefly, and then retracted it. Slowing down was all I could think of.

Addendum
The literature abounds with wing and tail configuration papers, but I found nothing on feet.

Considering the abundance of the Red-tail, I can't possibly be the only one to have observed this. It also seems unlikely to me that the bird simply "forgot" to hold its foot/feet in retracted position.

There must be a real and deliberate reason for an aerodynamically "cleaned up for a committed approach" bird to introduce such an intermittent disturbance into the airflow.
 
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