These birds are armed
June 6, 2018 8:17 PM   Subscribe

 
"Is this fleshy?"
posted by hippybear at 8:21 PM on June 6, 2018


This seems to be the owl.
posted by wanderingmind at 8:34 PM on June 6, 2018


I had to actually go back to the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, which I've read to my kid a dozen times, and she's totally right! I never even noticed.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:36 PM on June 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


What, no chicken fingers? Where do restaurants get them for their kid’s menus if not straight from the chicken?
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 8:48 PM on June 6, 2018 [4 favorites]


Wow. That owl is so naturalistic otherwise. I’ve been considering a bird tattoo; maybe I should go with ant-owl
posted by mr_roboto at 8:50 PM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


See also reddit.com/r/birdswitharms
posted by waninggibbon at 10:24 PM on June 6, 2018 [7 favorites]


I like the realistic holding-with-a-foot option. Although outside of parrots most birds have fairly limited dexterity in their feet and would probably first try to use everything with their beaks.
posted by Pyry at 10:44 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


Beatrix Potter's owl clearly wears its wings like a cloak or a poncho. When at rest, owls slip their arms out of their wings to relax and grasp a mug of tea.
posted by JamesBay at 10:52 PM on June 6, 2018 [22 favorites]


I cannot remember the name of the children's book but, from my childhood this goose set to work making wreaths to buy her.....lover's?....freedom. I don't remember any prehensility or even an image of her making the wreaths but when she held them up she would have her wingtips through the center, it looked like a very natural way for a goose to hold wreaths.
posted by Pembquist at 11:49 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


(awesome comeek by the way)
posted by JamesBay at 12:42 AM on June 7, 2018


I cannot remember the name of the children's book but, from my childhood this goose set to work making wreaths

Petunia's Christmas by Roger Duvoisin. The image of Petunia making wreaths with her wingtips can be seen here, on a Japanese site, and yes you're right, it looks perfectly natural: how else would a goose make wreaths?
posted by verstegan at 1:01 AM on June 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


If having arms is good enough for Foghorn Leghorn and Daffy Duck, it's good enough for any bird.

The more Disney solution (cf. Preston Blair) is to make the wing more armlike only when necessary. Cartoons are magic!
posted by zompist at 1:41 AM on June 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


I had to actually go back to the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, which I've read to my kid a dozen times, and she's totally right! I never even noticed.

Me neither! I must have been too distracted by the squirrels offering blood sacrifices to the owl.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:26 AM on June 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Interestingly, the Squirrel Nutkin owl starts off reading a book that it holds with one of its feet. Potter clearly felt that eating with one's feet, however, particularly at the table, would be a poor example to her impressionable readers. Better to grow some arms.
posted by pipeski at 3:48 AM on June 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the problem of "how do ponies hold stuff" has posed a similar conundrum. In the early seasons, ponies mostly used their mouths, except for a few "impossible" actions like Octavia playing the cello with her hooves. (Unicorns, of course, have telekinesis, so this is never an issue for them.)

In more recent seasons, particularly since Princess Twilight Sparkle won her wings, we've seen more use of what the article describes as "dexterous wings" by the pegasus ponies. At first just used to gesture, we now often seen them holding objects in their "wing fingers."

Yes, this is actually a dilemma that animators think about. (Don't get me started on why birds have teeth. See Chicken Run for a great example of this.)
posted by SPrintF at 5:39 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


That Gutenberg link above dun't work.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:42 AM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


We have the technology (CRISPR gene editing) Owls MUST have hands!
posted by sammyo at 6:03 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Dude, how am I even holding these tickets?

Behind the scenes video that is sort of interesting.
posted by TedW at 7:08 AM on June 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


"We have the technology (CRISPR gene editing) Owls MUST have hands!"
I once heard a someone from CBER at the FDA muse about a question like this after a few drinks. What do you get when you use next generation CRISPR-Cas9 genetic tools to cross a sheep, two chickens, a priest, and a rabbi at a bar? Or indeed to give squirrel arms to an owl?

A: An immediate revocation of all funding and a sternly written letter from your Internal Review Board.
posted by Blasdelb at 7:22 AM on June 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


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