Why do so many raptors have yellow feet? (1 Viewer)

[AncientBrit]

I was watching a kestrel, then a hobby, then a buzzard perched in the sunshine the other day, and the sun caught the bright yellow feet of each.
It then occurred to me - the vast majority of raptors have yellow feet!
Why?
Is there an evolutionary advantage?

I'm looking forward to a whole range of theories.

Over to you, Bird Forum

 

[Warixenjalka]

Yellow legs are easier to distinguish the bloody carcass / prey, and you should therefore not be pick your own feet...

Really - I don´t know. But I noticed same thing just the other day when I was guessing what I see: Peregrine, Merlin or even Sparrowhawk? http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=292095

 

[gmax]

Interesting question, though I have no answer ... it might be useful to check here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=217779

 

[Nutcracker]

Red-footed Falcon - the exception that proves the rule

Also Osprey, blue-grey.

 

[John Cantelo]

The majority do seem to have yellow/yellowish legs, but this doesn't seem to apply to vultures, Osprey and a good few other (but not all) fish or snake eating birds. There doesn't seem to be a common thread amongst BoPs that might give a clue to any function yellow legs might have that wouldn't apply equally to non-yellow legged species. Perhaps it's no more than a non-functional chance ancestral inheritance.

 

[Nutcracker]

Perhaps it's no more than a non-functional chance ancestral inheritance.

I'd think that's unlikely, given the depth of the ancestral divide between Accipitriformes and Falconiformes.

 

[Farnboro John]

Yellow feet, black claws. Its Darwinian hazard tape for nestlings.

John

 

[Nutcracker]

Yellow feet, black claws. Its Darwinian hazard tape for nestlings.

John

Lesser Kestrel?? o

 

[Farnboro John]

Lesser Kestrel?? o

Shhh!

John

 

[Strandman]

Not quite an answer, but the intensity of the yellow cere in raptors has been linked to fitness and selection by females. So if you are looking for a functional explanation, it may be that the yellow coloration has evolved as a means to display fitness. Always worth bearing in mind too that the raptors themselves might be more interested in how it looks in UV rather than the colours we see.