You won’t know why it’s a pun until you’ve seen both photos.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning in the mountains I had a delightfully frustrating time (now there’s a contradiction in terms) photographing Mountain Chickadees feeding on Douglas Fir seeds. If this pose looks familiar it’s because the chickadees were using the same feeding technique to get at the seeds within the cones that was used by the Red-breasted Nuthatch I posted a couple of days ago. Here I caught the chickadee hanging upside down from its food source and deciding where in the cone to probe for the next seed.
In these situations I never really know exactly what I’m photographing. Their feeding activity is so fast and frenzied and they stay in the same place for such a short period of time that all I can do is try to get the bird in focus and then lay on my shutter button as I fire a burst. And of course using a DSLR camera my view through the viewfinder is blocked much of the time by my slapping shutter screen so I often don’t know what behavior I’ve photographed until I review my photos at home.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Twelve shots and 1.2 seconds later the chickadee had turned 180° on the cone and gave me a near mirror image pose as compared to the previous photo. As I was processing these images I almost missed a small detail that I find amazing when I think about it.
Notice the position of the right foot in both photos. The position of that foot on the cone is exactly the same in both shots despite the 180° turn of the chickadee. When I study the photos it becomes obvious to me that that foot never moved or changed its grip on the cone as the bird turned completely around. So just imagine the flexibility of the foot and leg.
That’s a pretty neat trick when you think about it. It would be like a human standing in place on one foot and then turning our entire body completely backward to face the other way without moving or repositioning our foot. I don’t know about you but if I tried that I’d surely dislocate my hip and knee and probably break my ankle before I accomplished the task. It makes my eyes water just to think about it. We can do something similar with our arms and hands but certainly not with our legs and feet.
I didn’t know birds could do that!
Comparative anatomy and the evolutionary processes that produced our differences are amazing.
Ron
Notes:
- It appears to me that the foot is “backward” relative to the bird in the first photo and in a normal position in the second.
- For those who may not have picked up on my weak attempt at a pun in my title – “feat” versus “feet”. It works for me but then I’m easy.
- I hope my readers aren’t as screwed up as I am this morning by daylight savings time. For me it’s going to be a very long day. Brutally so…
Addendum:
There’s been some discussion in the comments about whether (or not) the foot in question is the same foot in both photos or if the bird has placed one foot where the other one had been in the earlier photo. The two photos above are file numbers 3707 and 3719. I wanted to look at #’s 3708-3718 to see if they provided further evidence either way but by the time I had spotted this apparent foot and leg flexibility I had already deleted those images from my computer because they weren’t very good.
But then I remembered I hadn’t gone shooting this morning so they were still on my memory card. I’ve retrieved them and posted them below in the order they were taken (if you’re on a laptop and using a mouse those file numbers can be seen by passing your cursor over the image).
Based on these additional photos that right foot didn’t move one iota as the bird turned on the cone so there was actually as much rotation in the foot and leg as I described in my post. It looks to me like I may have paused my burst for an instant between #’s 3718 and 3719 but the bird had already turned most of the way without moving its foot and I’m quite sure it didn’t have time and wasn’t in position to switch feet between those two images.
I don’t believe that all of the rotation was provided by the foot. I can also see some rotation in the leg and I suspect more was provided by other joints in the appendage.
But I’m open to another interpretation if there are any…
I still feel the same as I did. I keep focusing on the little spot of reflected light on the right foot talon. It sis not change in any of the photos. Great series.
Pictures don’t lie (at least these don’t). That”s a pirouette a ballerina could only wish for. I did about a quarter turn on one leg coming out of the shower a couple of weeks ago and my knee is still sore.
I want to come back as a chickadee.
Near my yard and the feeders.
It’s the bee’s knees for chickadees.
“The bees knees”. You and I are showing our age around here, Lyle. That was an old phrase even when I was a little kid and that was going on 70 years ago. Love it.
Great to see the sequence of events…… 🙂 DST doesn’t do anything for my disposition just makes it harder to go to sleep in the summer(light and hot) and I’d MUCH rather have the cool of the morning to work outside in….. 😉 All their BS “reasons”………
I feel about the same way, Judy.
Thanks, Ron. That helps me wrap my brain around this better. Most of the flexibility is with the toes and the joint to the tibiometatarsus. What most people call the foot on birds is actually just the toes. The long bones of the foot on birds are fused into a single long bone (the tibiometatarsus) between the toes and the ankle (which many people mistakenly think is the knee. The knee, pointing the same direction as ours, is usually hidden by the body feathers).
Thanks for that info, Dan. I thought about going into some of it but this post is too long already…
The additional shots were helpful in imagining the rotation I wonder if their tib/fib work the same as our radius/ulna — a birdie version of pronation and supination. And the butt-shots are priceless too! 😀
I wondered the same thing, Marty. I dunno…
Ron, you certainly made many of us curious about the right foot. I had to look at the photos several times before I saw what you were talking about. A great post with great information from you and your readers. Thank you
Thanks, Alice.
Thanks for the addition.
Colour me awed (and jealous).
Me too, EC. Me too!
I was intrigued by your puzzle and decided to see if I could find why there is one. I didn’t read your description until I compared the pictures and I do see it like you do. Great pictures and interesting information snd discussion this morning. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Betty, I’ve added more photos above if you’re interested.
Lovely images, as usual! Chickadees are in my Top Ten all-around favorite birds! They’re entirely too cool and my heart sings when I hear or see them. On top of everything else, they’re incredibly bold. In Dallas, the black-capped (?) chickadees would actually steal fur from Maggie the Golden Wondermutt. Luckily she didn’t care and she had plenty to spare especially when shedding during nesting time. I put clumps of fur out for them (and anybody else who wanted it) but they’d still snatch it from her in real time 😉
As for the chickadee’s pirouette, I think the pivot point is one of her (yes I default to she) claws/talons. But even with that, well I’d be writhing in pain on the floor if I even thought about doing that! And yes, their evolutionary capabilities are outrageous. In comparison, I think the human design really lacks ingenuity and agility (along with a host of other things). Overall, we’re poorly designed. Let’s just start with the idea of only two hands? Who thought that was going to be sufficient? Or the wonderful redundancy of four legs, not to even begin with the wings/feathers thing! We’re so inadequate! Jeesh! Rant over! 😉
Laura – Let me suggest that you look at Carolina Chickadee. The Black-capped Chickadee has a range entirely north of Texas. The two species look very similar and the “chick-a-dee” call is similar, although the song and other vocalizations may differ considerably. On the Black-capped Chickadee, the flanks (below the wings) are buffy-colored, not plain as in the Carolina Chickadee. With thei rapid movements this may be difficult to see.
Laura, I wondered if you ever see this kind of foot and leg rotation in your falconry birds… ?
Ron, I don’t see much of anything with the falconry birds just because it happens way faster than I CAN see it, our vision being substandard and all. Also, once they grab something they rarely let go given that tendon locking thing.
Dan, you’re most likely right on the Carolina chickadee. I couldn’t remember properly so I just guessed and guessed wrong…Sigh. I’m old now 😉
Hi Ron. Great photos. These guys rarely come as low as our elevation here in the valley but I see them frequently when I am in the mountains.
Perhaps my old eyes are just giving me trouble, but I’m having trouble seeing the foot as rotated. In the first photo, only one foot is clinging to the cone. It appears to be forward in relation to the cone and other foot and I believe it is the right foot. In the second photo, the forward foot (I think) is clinging to the cone. The tip of the cone is ahead of the other foot. If that’s true, the forward foot is now the left foot. Which means that the foot has not rotated. But if so, it is a strange coincidence that the other foot re-grabbed the cone in exactly the same position. But I can’t resolve it any other way except to say my macular degeneration is causing problems or some kind of optical illusion is fooling me. The foot should not be capable of that much rotation, but either way, it’s an interesting puzzle.
Dan, I’m working on a response to your comment but it will take me a while because it involves processing some additional images and posting them here. Stay tuned…
Dan, please see the additional photos I’ve posted as an addendum above and my new text. I’m interested to know what you think.
Flexibility AND flight. I am so often envious. Really envious.
And thank you for picking up on that detail which sadly I am pretty sure I would have missed.
Daylight savings? I am not a convert. We moved forward a few weeks ago and my brain and body are still out of synch.
Oh EC, don’t get me started on Daylight Savings! The humans might do it, but the critters, who can tell time quite efficiently, don’t buy into it at all!! Take for example my JR TERRORIST. She wakes me every morning at 6:46, which is OBVIOUSLY Feed the Dogs time immediately after their outside time!!
Oh and Arizona (where I’m living now) doesn’t do DST. Trouble is, the whole world around us does so we change from Pacific to Mountain time zones and back again without even trying. 😉
I hear you. I am compelled to work to Jazz time which pays no attention to any of our clocks.
Ron,
Daylight savings time: I can’t tell if I had more sleep or less!
Nice shots and observation.
Stephen
I had much less. Thanks, Stephen.
Neat! I REALLY had to look at both photos for awhile to sort out the legs! 😉 Our resident Black Caps always put on quite a show – love watching them find things to open sunflower seeds on and “stashing” their bounty for later as well as the upside down thing looking for whatever….. 🙂
“I REALLY had to look at both photos for awhile to sort out the legs.”
I did too, Judy. It was a little confusing.
That’s pretty amazing, but what’s even more amazing is that you picked up on it. I don’t think I ever would have even noticed. One of the things I miss down here is S. Arizona is antics and noisiness of Chickadees. The Buick wrens try to fill the gap as far as entertainment, but don’t come close to the Chickadees pilfering the sunflower seeds. Thanks for the bit of avian anatomy information. I would never have guessed that these guys could do that. PS: one of the things is do like about Arizona is that we don’t have to “fall back” or “spring forward”. Time just goes on!
I almost missed it, Frank.
And yes, I’m jealous of your Arizona “saneness” regarding time this time of year.
Truly amazing feet feat no matter which. Loved the pun and the photos. I just consulted my Professor Carl Tomoff’s Birds of Prescott Arizona listing and see that I have never checked off Mountain Chickadee which means that I have never knowingly seen one. I take most of my photos around our lakes that are all in the 5500 foot range. Guess I would need to hike up to some of our 6 to 7000 foot elevations to find these pretty guys. Thanks for sharing these Ron.
Thanks, Everett. Looking at their range map they should be found in your mountains.
They are so much fun to watch. I have seen them play with leaves hanging upside down. Great photos Ron!
Thanks, Jean.
Such a cute little one! They just seem to exude happiness. Always fun to watch chickadees and nuthatches scrambling up and around. This one definitely has a swivel for a joint! I caught your pun immediately mostly because I’m a stickler for spelling or I should say more so for the use of homophones. It just makes my skin crawl when I see all the errors on facebook. It took me a while to get used to ‘Douglas-fir’…not a true fir being it’s ‘Pseudotsuga’ not ‘Abies’, the true fir. But now I have revealed something of my personality! 🤔 I could go on forever about the time change, or needless time change. Why does it continue???
Kathy, for me it’s always been “Doug Fir”. That’s what I heard them called growing up.
Yeah, I have to hold my breath (and my nose) reading all the poor grammar and usage on social media. Some of it’s so terribly bad you can’t even tell what they really mean. I’d be embarrassed but then I make some mistakes of my own… 🙂
Oh my gosh, I’m glad I’m not the only one! Aside from the usual ‘they’re, their, there,’ the one that gets me is people’s incorrect use of ‘whomever.’ It seems like they just interject the word (incorrectly) wherever they like to make themselves appear more literate… only it backfires on them because of their (they’re? there?) lack of understanding of the correct usage.
So now that I’ve finished (unless you get me started again) ranting about our illiterate America, I wanted to say that the chickadee pics are pretty cool. Who knew that they pivot?
Thanks, Shelley. I knew they could rotate their legs and feet some but I’m blown away that they could do it that far.
I enjoyed this post very much. I think the mountain chickadee is the same as the ones I see in the foothills of Bountiful, always fun to watch (often heard before seen).
Good! Mountain Chickadees can be distinguished from Black-capped by their white eyebrow stripe and their lack of white on their folded wings.
That is also helpful Ron. Thanks!
As soon as I read your intended pun I looked at the legs and feet. Quite a challenge, but chickadees are amazing anyway! Our Black-capped ones do similar stuff, just wish I had images to prove it!
Great shots, had to have been a ton of fun.
Thanks, Dick. Actually it was more frustrating than delightful yesterday. Few chickadees, or nuthatches for that matter, cooperated.
Thanks for the help Dick. The Blackcapped Chickadee is what I’m seeing in the foothills.