Quite a bit has been written on the point also.
There is first a question whether the foot that holds the food indicates the 'footedness'.
The bird might well prefer to hang from or balance its weight on its stronger
foot. My observations are that cockatoos nearly always hold the food in
the left foot, ground-feeding cockatoos for example plucking the eg weed with
the bill and rocking onto the right foot to eat it from the left. In my
COG Gang-gang video I pointed out that published pictures (or film for that
matter) should not be trusted on this point, because the image can readily be
'flipped' for one reason or other. Graeme Chapman's Gang-gang photo on the
jacket of that well-known edition of 'Birds in the Australian High Country' is
an example.
As to parrots, I would have thought they had some
preference for holding the food in the left foot. More significant for
tree-feeders, perhaps, is which foot holds the preferred perch, likely to be
the more secure one. I am sure we have all seen parrots 'change feet' so
they can feed in their preferred attitude, perhaps so as be able to keep an eye
on the observer rather than turn their back. This is very evident with
the KPs in my Catalpa tree, the handling of the awkward pods being quite a
prolonged operation. Neither of these pictures has been flipped, but then
you have to take my word for that.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Probets [
Sent: Wednesday, 25 April 2007 9:49 AM
To: John Layton; Canberra Birds
Subject: Left and Right
There has been quite a lot of discussion on Birding-Aus
in the past
regarding "footedness" in cockatoos. If I
remember correctly, it
boiled down to most cockatoo species being predominantly
left-footed
(with the exception perhaps of some captive birds) and
the Crimson
Rosella being mostly right-footed. I don't think anyone
had noticed
which foot other species of parrot were using. Certainly
all my
observations here in the Blue Mountains conform to the
above,
including Sulphur-cresteds, Gang-gang, Yellow-tailed and
Glossy Black
all being left-footed. There's obviously something
strange going on
with the cockatoos on paddocks around Wagga Wagga!
Incidentally, the invasion of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
into the Blue
Mountains over the past 20 years has been very
conspicuous. During
the 80s they were quite a rare sight; these days each
neighbourhood
seems to have its own flock of 60-100, making a huge din
as they
wheel around and descend on unwitting houses, or dive
from the
clifftops to roost in the valleys at dusk. Now the
Rainbow Lorikeets
are also moving into parts of the mountains where they
didn't occur
previously and I fear their increase will be even greater
than the
SCCs. I mention these things because it seems a similar
thing might
be happening in Canberra, or is on the brink of
happening.
cheers,
Carol
At 9:12 PM +1000 24/4/07, John Layton wrote:
>The cockatoos snip off a spray of berries, take it in
their left
>foot and eat. A wise old birder once told me Canberra
cockies
>(birds, not farmers) always put food in their mouths
using the left
>foot. However, an ever-vigilant brat, hovering behind
me, says that
>S-c Cockatoos, feeding on paddocks around
Wagga, always use their
>right foot. I have watched Crimson Rosellas feeding
on our Silver
>Birch fruit, and they all appear to be right-footed
feeders.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carol Probets
Guided birding in the Blue Mountains & Capertee
Valley
PO Box 330
Katoomba NSW 2780
Web: http://www.bmbirding.com.au
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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