Why Are Birds’ Legs Thin Like Toothpicks?

Although the thin legs of birds may seem like a striking feature at first glance, one of the reasons for this is actually optical illusion. “How?” We hear you say, but this reason is just the beginning.

Beneath their eye-catching appearance, there is an interesting story dating back to dinosaurs. evolutionary story lies. Let’s explain without further ado.

The first reason why birds’ legs are so thin is a kind of optical illusion.

Julia Clarke, a paleontologist who studies bird evolution at the University of Texas, says the first reason why birds’ legs appear oddly thin is because their bodies the rest is mostly covered with feathers and that these feathers make birds appear larger than normal.

Their tiny bodies hidden under their feathers, their legs are quite long. small and naked That’s what makes it appear. Birds with feathers down to their toes, such as owls and some chickens, have thicker legs.

This optical illusion is not the only reason.

There are indeed differences between the thinness of the legs of birds and the thinness of the legs of other animals. Birds are descendants of bipedal dinosaurs that varied in size. some of these Some were as small as sparrows and some were as huge as T-Rex.

While most mammals that can walk on two legs, such as bears, chimpanzees and humans, stand on their heels, dinosaurs stand on their heels. on the toes and the front of the foot He was walking. The rest of the foot bones were held extended above the ground.

Today’s birds retained some of these features and developed different ones as they took to the air. As the ancestors of birds began to grow more and more wings, this enabled the development of stronger wing muscles in birds. It shifted their center of gravity towards the front of the body. To maintain balance their bodies became smaller, her thighs shifted and connected to the body, becoming part of the hip.

They don’t all have the same skinny legs.

like an ostrich flightless and spends a lot of time on the ground Birds’ legs are relatively large and muscular so they can carry more weight. “Light songbirds” do not need muscular legs because they walk less.

In short, birds’ legs became this way because of their evolutionary history. For most birds (especially flying ones) Its limbs are supposed to be muscular, not its legs but its wings. When their hairy bodies come into play, it’s normal for them to look so thin!

You can check out our other animal-related content: