Upside-down Birds

What does it take to spend time upside-down?

Chickadee

It's a combination of leg strength and light weight, such as you find in some small birds like finches and this chickadee. By feeding upside-down they are able  to investigate places that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach. Perhaps not competitors, either. 

Downy Woodpecker

Some species with very strong legs do well hanging below stout branches.

Cedar Waxwing

Others stretch themselves without unusual anatomy, for a bird, and can reach down occasionally, 

Black-and-white Warbler

A few songbirds like this Black-and-white Warbler are adept at gleaning insects from the crevices of tree bark, in almost any body position. Then can look for prey from all angles.

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatches defy logic by seeming to walk down tree trunks in their search for food. How do they hold on? How do they manage excessive blood flow to their heads?

As they descend, nuthatches alternately catch and release themselves by the claw on their hind toe. In a sense they maneuver by skillfully falling down the tree.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Nuthatches exploit a different niche from other birds even in the same tree. Seeds that they store in the bark from an upside-down position might be less visible to other birds.

Brown Creeper

A nuthatch lookalike, the Brown Creeper, almost always works its way from the bottom to the top of a tree. It has similarly oversized feet and claws for its lifestyle but longer, stiff tail feathers for propping itself upright. It's a slightly different niche specialist that rarely goes upside down.

All through the natural world creatures are adapting to their circumstances, even upside down.