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
Bird’s legs aren’t covered in feathers and are thus uninsulated. They also have blood flow through the legs specifically to exchange heat, much like a. Ar’s radiator or even a dog panting.
By standing only on one leg, and tuck the other, they cut down on the heat loss to this and conserve it when they’d rather keep the heat than cool off.
Also, your assumption that they’re working hard by using only one leg may not be true. I don’t specifically know if this is true for standing but animals often have adaptations that are counter to how people work.
For example, bats sleep upside down effortlessly because their natural at rest claw state is to grasp. They have to expend energy to open their claw, versus humans who expend to clamp down.
I’d not be surprised if birds are at rest standing in ways we are not.
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