Characteristics of a bird's legs can tell you a lot about where it lives. Aquatic birds may have long thin legs and toes that they can gracefully walk through water and shorelines with or birds like ducks and geese have short legs and webbed toes for swimming land. Birds usually have four toes three in the front one in the back, and they use these to grip onto branches.

Birds of prey like hawks and eagles have especially sharp and strong, toes called talons for hunting other animals.