Bird leg amputation

November 5, 2007 4:51 AM

I often see one-legged birds hopping around, usually pigeons or seagulls. What would be the most common cause of them losing one foot?

I've read explanations like: cats; anti-pigeon foot-acid; standing in their own excrement; birth deformities. In the case of seagulls, I would imagine that there is a fair amount of fishing machinery and tackle that might cause an amputation, but what would cause pigeons in an urban environment to lose a foot? So, why not other birds, I can't recall seeing a one-legged Cockatoo, Kookaburra or Indian Mynah (the next three most common birds around here) at all.

posted by tellurian to pets & animals (29 comments total)

Bumblefoot or pigeon pox.
posted by fire&wings at 4:53 AM on November 5, 2007

Whoa! That's nasty, fire&wings, but I'm talking amputation not distortion.
posted by tellurian at 5:06 AM on November 5, 2007

Previously, specifically this, which seems to peg the loss of a whole toe or foot on entanglement with discarded wire, thread (especially synthetics), and so on.
posted by anaelith at 5:11 AM on November 5, 2007

Are you sure the seagulls aren't just standing on one leg? They do that alot.
posted by cabingirl at 5:16 AM on November 5, 2007

(Well, if they lost both feet, they wouldn't last much longer, no?)
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:25 AM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh! Thanks anaelith. I searched on pigeon+leg but there wasn't a result. Poor Pete!
posted by tellurian at 5:36 AM on November 5, 2007

[unticks anaelith] Hang on! "So, why not other birds, I can't recall seeing a one-legged Cockatoo, Kookaburra or Indian Mynah (the next three most common birds around here) at all."
posted by tellurian at 5:42 AM on November 5, 2007

So, why not other birds?

Tree-perching birds vs urban adventurer birds, perhaps? Pigeons have really evolved to the urban environment and will land pretty much anywhere, but I've never seen a Cockatoo on the high street pavement.

I am not a bird watcher but it seems to me I see pigeons landing and eating on the ground, and in fact travelling on foot down city streets, whereas other birds seem to have more of a "swoop and carry off" foraging approach without actually landing.

Down and dirty birds such as seagulls and pigeons would therefore seem far more likely candidates for entanglement in wires, bags, mesh, and strings.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:55 AM on November 5, 2007

Pigeons have really evolved to the urban environment and will land pretty much anywhere, but I've never seen a Cockatoo on the high street pavement.
In my urban environment I have both pigeons and cockatoos. This is my 'high street pavement'. We have a large (and growing) population of Indian Mynahs as well. Also, I neglected to mention the Ibis. Ubiquitous as the bird is, I haven't seen any one-legged Ibis either.
posted by tellurian at 6:38 AM on November 5, 2007

My money is on being ensnared in discarded fishing line or wire... with a remote possibility of being chomped on by something in the water or on the beach (and you don't see the ones with two legs missing since they don't get away).
posted by chef_boyardee at 6:48 AM on November 5, 2007

In cold climates, it's often frostbite. Pigeons standing on steel structures like the underside of a bridge are frostbitten faster than they would be standing on rock. Steel is a more efficient conductor of heat away from pigeon feet than the rock they evolved to deal with.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:01 AM on November 5, 2007

This is completely subjective, but seagulls and pigeons seem like much sturdier, more adaptable birds than cockatoos, etc. Perhaps the one-legged cockatoos die before we notice them, but the one-legged pigeons manage to cope well enough that they live to be seen.
posted by vytae at 7:12 AM on November 5, 2007

I had always thought that they lost legs because of glue traps, but Googling around, it seems that string is most likely. There's a sad, graphic description of how string can cause a pigeon to lose a leg here, about a quarter of the way down the page (search for "string").
posted by TochterAusElysium at 7:21 AM on November 5, 2007

I live near a protected National Seashore and have spent a lot of time on the shore and at the beach. The sight of a gull standing on one leg is quite common, to the point where it's a standard joke to play on tourists. Simply stating "Oh no! Look at that poor seagull with one leg," is usually enough to set a group of tourists cooing like doves, and the more compassionate members in the group will approach the bird with thoughts of a rescue. The birds usually look apprehensive, allowing the people to come a slight bit closer than normal (if they're on both legs then they tend to just walk away from people), before invariably putting the other leg down, hopping into the air and flying off down the beach. I have seen hundreds of such "amputee" gulls, and not yet have I seen a gull that's actually missing a leg.

It must be more efficient somehow. Perhaps they can "lock" their knee in such a manner than it requires very little energy to keep them standing. I don't know why else they might do it.

I don't know nuthin' 'bout no pigeons, though.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:35 AM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

It must be more efficient somehow. Perhaps they can "lock" their knee in such a manner than it requires very little energy to keep them standing. I don't know why else they might do it.

Warmth.
posted by Leon at 7:43 AM on November 5, 2007

I doubt this is common, but a few years ago, I saw a seagull lose its leg when it was hit by a car. The last I saw, several people had gotten out of their cars are were trying to catch it, so hopefully Animal Control was able to either put it down humanely or stabilize it so it survived.
posted by maudlin at 8:34 AM on November 5, 2007

BeerFilter: to keep their feet warm, or to avoid hot sand, or to ease the weight off one foot and still be able to escape concerned tourists.

(I love doing that to tourists, too. Floridians make their own fun.)

I've seen songbirds pull one leg up sometimes, and I'm guessing it's for a similar reason. Those guys are always on their feet when they're not flying. Has to be tiring.

Though... I've never seen bigger birds do it - ibises, cranes, herons, wood storks, etc. Or pelicans, though if they tried to stand around on one foot they'd probably fall over.
posted by cmyk at 8:46 AM on November 5, 2007

I've seen blackbirds (??) around here missing one foot. Surprisingly, it isn't that much of a handicap. They seem to get along pretty well.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:47 AM on November 5, 2007

Every bird I've ever seen that appeared to be missing a leg eventually lowered the "missing" leg to either switch it up a bit and tuck the other leg, or just to fly off. I have yet to see a bird actually missing a leg.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:04 AM on November 5, 2007

The blackbirds I saw had stumps. There was no mistake; the foot was missile.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:12 AM on November 5, 2007

I've seen a surprising amount of stumpy pigeons hobbling around Chicago, and until now I chalked it up to them getting too close to the trains and getting hit. The above explanations seem much more likely. I haven't seen any missing an entire leg, but usually toes and sometimes the whole foot are gone.

I'm surprised so many of them are able to actually survive losing a foot. The gut reaction for me is to feel sorry for them, but man, those are some tough birds.
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:16 AM on November 5, 2007

Oh, I can verify seagulls missing feet, not just hiding them. I usually thought it was from M80s. People aren't very nice to seagulls.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:21 AM on November 5, 2007

Oh, heck. "The foot was missing."
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:40 AM on November 5, 2007

Possibly other types of non-pigeon birds are better at untangling themselves with their beaks? Pigeon beaks don't look very useful for.. much of anything, really.

Or maybe other birds are just a lot more cautious about landing on anything wiggly like string. This is starting to remind me of the cow v. sheep thread.
posted by anaelith at 10:46 AM on November 5, 2007

Not quite related, but the local public radio station has played a clip of seeing a grackle hanging around a Mexican restaurant waiting for sympathy. When the patron tossed a chip, it put the other leg down, grabbed the chip, and flew off.
posted by Pants! at 12:13 PM on November 5, 2007

This is nothing but wild-assed conjecture but I wouldn't put it past a bluefish to take a grab at a seagull foot dangling in the water. Same goes for the ducks, geese and swans that hang out in estuaries bordering salty bays.

Bluefish are really mean fuckers.
posted by Opposite George at 1:47 PM on November 5, 2007

When some people open a tin can, they cut around almost the entire perimeter, get the contents of the can out, then push the lid back down into the can. Seagulls and pigeons scavenge in rubbish dumps. Want to make a bet that some of those cans have a bird foot at the bottom of them? If you need a graphic demonstration of what I'm talking about, do this to your next can, then push a finger in and try - carefully - to pull it out.
posted by tim_in_oz at 2:30 PM on November 5, 2007

I helped catch a seagull whose foot was wrapped in fishing line that was so tight as to have rendered the foot gangrenous. I suppose the foot eventually fell off. Sadly, the hook was lodged in his eye, which got pulled on every time he tried to take a step. I helped him out with the hook/eye problem, but there wasn't much I could do about the foot.

We named him Lucky.
posted by kamikazegopher at 4:11 PM on November 5, 2007

In a previous post focusing on two cases of unusual prosthetics, the birds lost their legs to (a) a gin trap and (b) fishing line.
posted by rob511 at 4:27 PM on November 5, 2007