Raptors on one leg

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hi Julian,

 

That suggestion that "raptors keep bits of unused prey held in one foot tucked up inside their feathers" is a new one on me (I've never heard of it or seen it. Such a behaviour would seem very messy to me and a strange thing to do and I wonder why they would do so, if indeed they do. In contrast I have seen them holding prey under the foot and on the perch and that would appear to be standard. They will stand on one foot just as a lot of birds do. Indeed I learned when keeping finches years ago that if one is roosting on two feet, it is likely to be very sick and such birds were often dead in the morning (or at least that is the way I remember it).

 

I don't know if you were suggesting this, but having read Bronwyn's caption (below), I don't see it as suggesting that the raptor was keeping unused prey held in one foot tucked up inside its feathers, simply that, having eaten, it was resting, perched on one leg.

 

Plural of hobby is hobbies (absolutely not hobby's, which is something belonging to a hobby).

 

Philip