Little Red-Breasted Nuthatches seem to be my favorites lately. The other day I wrote about this tiny bird’s big toe, correctly called the hallux. My illustration with that blog post did not show off the bird’s propensity to travel down a tree trunk, using those big toes to keep it securely on the trunk, seemingly defying gravity.
Photographing the Coyotes in Yellowstone National Park in January has turned out to be one of the highlights of my photographic journey these past few years. The experience rivaled my visit three years ago when we photographed a pack of Gray Wolves at a Bison kill. While the experiences were quite different, the excitement was the same. And this year, we saw and photographed Coyotes each day we were in the park. This Coyote veered off the groomed roadway and up a small snowy knoll fairly close to where we stood. It sensed a vole under the snow and cocked its head to listen. The challenge for us was to anticipate the Coyote’s pounce and capture the peak of the momentum. The first pounce was unsuccessful but the Coyote emerged from the snowbank and launched a second time depicted in this photograph. Sadly for the Coyote, it came up short again. But it was marvelous to observe some “big air” Coyote style.
The hallux is a backward pointing toe on the foot of a Red-breasted Nuthatch. In humans, the hallux is our big toe. In Red-breasted Nuthatches, it is clearly their biggest toe, but it serves a unique purpose. That toe is what allows these birds to hang off the bark as they scurry down a tree trunk. In this photograph, the Red-breasted Nuthatch is not in its iconic downward facing pose because it is horizontal not vertical. However, the Nuthatch’s big toe is clearly visible especially on its left foot. Apparently, it is unique among birds but natural for this species according to Cameron Ghalambor, a professor of biology at Colorado State University who has studied Red-breasted Nuthatches. I have come to adore the Red-breasted Nuthatch, a delightful little bird, for its iconic stance that seemingly defies gravity as it clamors downhill on a tree trunk. I didn’t realize that the toe that allows it to do this is analogous to our big toe which doesn’t have nearly the flexibility that the Red-breasted Nuthatch has.