page_title: Bird feet and legs
section_title: Toes and unfused metatarsals
hierarchical_section_title: Bird feet and legs / Hindlimbs / Toes and unfused metatarsals
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Straußenfuß
context_page_description: The anatomy of bird legs and feet is diverse, encompassing many accommodations to perform a wide variety of functions.
  Most birds are classified as digitigrade animals, meaning they walk on their toes, rather than the entire foot. Some of the lower bones of the foot are fused to form the tarsometatarsus – a third segment of the leg, specific to birds. The upper bones of the foot, in turn, are fused with the tibia to form the tibiotarsus, as over time the centralia disappeared. The fibula also reduced.
  The legs are attached to a strong assembly consisting of the pelvic girdle extensively fused with the uniform spinal bone called the synsacrum, built from some of the fused bones.
context_section_description: Most birds have four toes, typically three facing forward and one pointing backward. In a typical perching bird, they consist respectively of 3,4, 5 and 2 phalanges. Some birds, like the sanderling, have only the forward-facing toes; these are called tridactyl feet. Others, like the ostrich, have only two toes (didactyl feet). The first digit, called the hallux, is homologous to the human big toe.
  The claws are located on the extreme phalanx of each toe. They consist of a horny keratinous podotheca, or sheath, and are not part of the skeleton.
  The bird foot also contains one or two metatarsals not fused in the tarsometatarsus.
caption: The ostrich is the only bird that has the didactyl foot.[2]
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