Why birds sometimes stand on one leg?

If you observe, you can notice an interesting tendency: most often such a purse takes waterfowl, especially long-legged. First of all it is flamingos, storks and herons. The second leg is pressed and buried in the fluff. At the same time, the flamingos still bend the neck and hide the beak in the feathers on the back, and the storks and herons simply pull the head into the shoulders and fluffy.

This is due to thermoregulation: in cold water, the legs are cooled faster, and they are often long and thin in waterfowl. This feature of the structure helps them to hunt, standing at a depth, but at the same time blood turns faster. Due to the fact that the blood vessels in the legs are immediately under the skin, pressing the legs in turn to the warm body, the bird warms. And in the hot climate, on the contrary, it allows it to avoid overheating.

Press the legs not only long-legged waterfowl. In the cold duck and other birds, including those that live on land, also do not mind to warm them in the warm down. But why are some, such as Flamingo, prefer to stand on one leg for a long time or even sleep in such a position? One thing to warm the paws alternately, and another – stand so for hours, uncomfortable!

Actually comfortable. In the birds in the joints there is a special locking mechanism. The leg is simply fixed in the literal position, and, in fact, standing on one leg, the birds do not apply any muscle effort. And this saves energy.

At the same time, the unequivocal separation on those who prefer to stand on the right leg, and who is on the left, no. But there is another pattern: Pernaya left swells fold the wings so that the left is the left, and right-handed, on the contrary, right. (About what determines the leading hands in humans – in this article.)