Geoffrey's email reminded me of an observation a couple of weeks ago:
Firstly, an Australian Raven was tucking into a large, discarded bread roll/pastry-looking-thing on Clunies Ross Street. As I approached, the raven started to carry the obviously heavy item away from me, head and neck drooping from the load. It then took off and, just as I was wondering how it would carry the pastry-thing and fly, it deftly passed the food from beak to feet in mid-air, and flew away. I just thought it looked very cool.
And secondly, what determines whether a bird is an "under-wing" scratcher (uses feet to scratch body part from underneath the wings) or an "over-wing" scratcher (drops the wings and pokes the legs behind the shoulder in order to scratch said body part)? Is this individual preference, does it vary inter-specifically, is it a passerine v. non-passerine difference, or random?
Cheers, Beth
On 02/09/2010, at 10:36 AM, Geoffrey Dabb wrote: As evident from the below, this is another cocky that some might regard as left-footed. My own view is that right-footed birds hold the food in the left foot because it is less serious dropping the food than falling out of the tree. That leaves the question: which foot holds the food while the bird flies into the tree? Answer: neither (in the bill).
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