Today I learned: Blue Jays (and other birds) tuck their feet away like an airplane's landing gear [burnsteem100]
I got this photo of a flying Blue Jay yesterday, and cropped it so I could see the bird a bit better:
[Nikon P1000 camera settings: ƒ/5.6; 1/2000; 144mm (33X, 800mm equiv.); ISO1600, cropped to 1,336mm equiv.]
Side note: the Blue Jay has its own card in the animalCards deck.
I was puzzled by the absence of visible legs under the Blue Jay, so I asked Meta AI.
The AI said that the bird's legs are tucked away to avoid injury and improve aerodynamics. I said, "like an airplane's landing gear?", and the AI said, "exactly". The AI followed that by claiming that early airplane pilots even referred to the new retractable wheels as "bird like".
I was curious about the mechanics of this, so I did some additional searches, and learned that the leg folds up accordion-style, and it's hidden from view from below by the bird's feathers. All we can see, I guess, are the birds feet looking like buttons or dimples on the bird's underside.
There's a good diagram of the folding mechanics at the site, Outside My Window in the article, Anatomy: How do birds fold their legs in flight?.