Beak Adaptations
How To Draw Birds
Create-a-Bird
|
Bird Adaptations - Feet
If you want to learn more
about birds, you may want to pay attentions to feet shapes! You can use it as
one of the characeristics you use to identify birds. If you have already
identified a bird, you can learn more about its behavior by looking at the feet
and thinking about where it lives. To help you get started, here are some common feet shapes and the environment they are especially adapted to live in:
| SHAPE | TYPE | ADAPTATION |
 | Grasping | Raptors like Osprey use their large curved claws to snatch fish from the water. |
 | Scratching | Pheasants and other birds that scratch the soil for food have nail-like toes. |
 | Swimming | Ducks and other webbed lined swimming birds use their feet like paddles. |
 | Perching | Robins have a long back toe, which lets them grab a perch tightly. |
 | Running | Many fast-running birds have three toes rather than four. |
 | Climbing | A woodpecker's hind toes enable it to climb without falling backward. |
|