I think this is a Hudsonian Godwit. Pose shows the way it bent forward when it hopped due to its having only 1 leg. While standing still it had good balance.
Plum Island - eastern shore of Massachusetts.
please verify - Hudsonian G
I think this is a Hudsonian Godwit. Pose shows the way it bent forward when it hopped due to its having only 1 leg. While standing still it had good balance.
Plum Island - eastern shore of Massachusetts.
I think your ID is right.
Yes. It's an adult Hudsonian Godwit that is in the midst of its pre-basic molt.
Thanks for the information.
The bird most likely had two legs. They often stand for extended periods of time on one leg. If a leg is gone, there is usually a stump.
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This one had a little stump but I do not have an image showing it in any I kept.
Then one-legged it is!
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Does anyone know how birds usually lose legs? I can't imagine that fishing lines are responsible in cases like this.
Shorebirds may lose their feet or legs to bivalves like large clams (if they are lucky not to lose their lives). I have seen some struggling to get free. Snapping or other large turtles might be responsible for some. Any other ideas?
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Thanks, Artie! Very interesting. A while back I found a sanderling whose beak was stuck in a clam that was so heavy that he couldn't even fly anymore. I was able to capture the bird and it was not easy to remove the clam.Originally Posted by Arthur Morris
In the Shetland Isles, Oystercatchers get their legs ensnared in sheeps wool as they walk around feeding on the moorland. Once they get a small piece of wool caught on their legs more wool quickly builds up and gradually tightens until the leg below the wool dies and eventually drops off.
Dave.
When in the nest the babies can get a hair or string or something similar wrapped around the leg and it will act the same as to what Dave has said in the below post. I have seen this happen in captive bred birds.
Bill
We often see Bar-tailed Godwits in NZ missing part of a leg, and I suspect that shooting in Alaska is the culprit. A certain (or uncertain) amount of harvesting does go on, and I presume the ones that cop a shot through the leg rather than body are the ones that have a chance of surviving.
It is amazing what birds can cope with. I've also seen one with the lower half of its tarsus hanging by a tendon. Any crippled birds tend to be shunned slightly by the rest of the flock, and I have once gotten a photo of two godwits side by side, both trying to scratch their heads with a missing lower leg. That truly is a sad sight.
Cheers, Phil
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