Can someone clarify how birds find it energy efficient to stand on one leg?
I can’t get my head around the idea of shifting the body weight onto one leg is easier for energy/heat conservation if the leg in use will be working more, taking more load.
In: 8
At least for one bird, the flamingo, its legs actually have a kind of “locking” mechanism which enables all the joints to be stabilized without requiring any muscle activity. So it actually takes essentially no energy at all for them to stand that way – just as a table doesn’t need any energy to stand on its legs either. This locking mechanism only “activates” when they’re in this one-leg-tucked stance, which is how they sleep.
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