Alula; Your birds thumb

[Wolf]

Although I was thinking mostly of Michael and his passion for flight, I thought that other members might be interested in this. But I will bet that most of us didn't even realize that our birds even had a thumb, much less that it had such an important function.
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_dis ... _id=325439

[Pajarita]

No, no, birds don't have thumbs -they do have what used to be fingers, though. The alula is called a 'thumb' because of the usefulness of a thumb in a hand but it's made of little feathers that move, same as the rotator remiges which would be the 'other fingers' in the 'hand'.

See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alula

and this (very good!): http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/RITCHI ... otes2.html

[Saerphe]

I like to blow people's minds by explaining birds have 'thumbs' and that their wings are (more or less) feathered arms. One of my favourite things is to see birds or pictures of birds with their wings fully extended and their alulas stretched out.