Avian Feet

[Flutterby]

Great pic! Where are Black-necked Stilts found?

[Lisbeth]

The black-necked stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is a locally abundant shorebird of American wetlands and coastlines. It is found from the coastal areas of California through much of the interior western United States and along the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Florida, then south through Central America and the Caribbean to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. The northernmost populations, particularly those from inland, are migratory, wintering from the extreme south of the United States to southern Mexico, rarely as far south as Costa Rica; on the Baja California peninsula it is only found regularly in winter

[Flutterby]

[Lisbeth]

[Klipspringer]

Waterbirds usually have webbed feet for foot-based propulsion. Webbed feet can be morphologically classifed into four types: palmate, semipalmate, totipalmate, and lobate. Palmate feet are the most common type of webbed feet in waterbirds, where three front-facing toes (toes II, III, and IV) are entirely connected by webbing. Semipalmate feet have partial webbing at the base of the three front-facing toes. Totipalmate
feet have a hallux connected by webbing to front-facing toe II, and toes II, III, and IV are entirely connected by webbing. The four toes of lobate feet are separated from each other, but each toe has leaf-like membranes (lobes) along the edges that produce propulsion in water.

Lobate-footed grebes and coots:

Eurasian Coot


Those lobed toes are good for swimming, and they're also suited for walking on land and to climb the floating nest. Likely also good for fighting

[Lisbeth]

I have never really looked closely at those feet

[Flutterby]

Never seen feet like that!

[Richprins]

[Klipspringer]

Not the ideal photo, but a Coot from Madikwe

[Richprins]

I can see the lobes!