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Hi John,
Actually birds have a limited ability to "wrap toes
around" something. Toes are not flexible like worms. Passerines can only bend
the hind toe just above the claw and they may move the claw up and down
whilst perched. Plus of course they can move the whole toe up and down from the
joint to the foot. I think I recall (a quick check at a picture of a skeleton
supports this), though I suspect there are variations, the hind toe has only one
joint, the second (i.e. inner forward toe) has two joints, the third (i.e.
middle forward toe) has three and the fourth has four. Of course bird orders
differ in arrangement as to whether fourth toe faces forward or backward, web
and joins between toes.
Philip
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