Found this great animation and some diagrams demonstrating the amazing grip of owls.
An owl’s ability to catch and hold on to pretty is vital to its survival. It’s also important for other things, such as not falling off a tree it’s sleeping on! So how does this work?
There are no muscles in the foot. The only thing that moves the talons is a system of tendons. When an owl swoops in on pretty or a perch, it comes in with legs extended in front of itself.
In this outstretched posture, the tendons are opened. As the feet strike the target, impact pushes the legs into the body. This movement makes the tendons automatically snap the talons closed. As body weight is applied, the grip is locked in place. Only by purposefully removing weight from the foot or consciously extending the leg does the foot open. This way, an owl standing in prey or a branch cannot let go unless it chooses to or is physically overpowered.
Owl grip is no joke. Other than just the talons being able to stab, their grip can rival that of the jaws of some of the large dog breeds. That strength, plus 8 built in daggers is a killer combo.
Images originally by arsanotomica, except for the Barn Owl. There’s a few more anatomical terms at the link if you’re interested.
This is really cool, and i didn’t know that they didn’t have muscles in their feet. Thank you for sharing!
Yup, no meat down there. They can band birds before they leave the nest since their skeleton is fully grown by the time they’re ready to start flying, so even though they will still gain mass after they leave, they won’t outgrow the metal band.
Here’s a guy snatching some big babies out of the best to tag them before they fly away.
Those diagrams were very helpful and nicely made, thanks for sharing!
Would that mean that walking on flat ground is difficult for them, since they would have to keep putting in effort to open the talons?
It also made me go back and watch the video of the owl that fell over after anaesthesia. Watching it again now, the dressing on the feet that were open the talons, might have limited its mobility even more than I thought
Lol that poor owl didn’t even move its feet. It’s like it has those crazy rocker shoes.
Owls can run if they want to. Burrowing Owls do it regularly, as will Little Owls though big owls can still run also.
I’ve never seen anything to make it seem like it’s an effort for them to run, there just faster flying. I’m picturing it as when we would lock our knee to keep a leg straight, but I haven’t found any real comparison. I’ll have to nerd out about this next time I see a professional. 😊
“Flexor Digitorum Longus” is my stage name with my speed metal bluegrass band. I hope there won’t be a copyright problem.
I don’t think anatomy can be trademarked, so you should be good!
When an owl swoops in on pretty
I know what you meant but this is great 🙂 Awesome post!
Lol I swear this autocorrect is getting worse with time instead of better.
It is supposed to be “prey” but it is pretty as well
