Characteristics Of The Birds Of Animals

I love animals, specifically those that I work with everyday, which are the birds of prey including, eagles, hawks, and owls. The BESS technique (body, effort, shape, and space) applies to these animals and analyzes how they utilize movement in their day-to-day lives. I have come to know many of these bird’s tendencies in the wild and even more so in captivity, and they truly exhibit incredible and crucial dynamics through their body movements. For instance, you notice the unique characteristics of the birds of prey, especially in captivity. When being approached they manipulate their body stance, their effort is very direct in movement, and they take up more space in order to prepare to defend their territory. What I hope to achieve through …show more content…
An owl’s feathers play a crucial role in its ability to conceal themselves from predators or to disguise them when hunting. Moreover, hawks and eagles are quite similar in that they too have an outside toe that alleviate their movement to allow for a more seamless take off and landing when in flight. Similarly, their body weight is primarily made up of their feather weight, but has many layers to insulate their body temperature and acts to protect them from environmental elements. For example, hawks and eagles have layers of feathers that consist of down feathers, semiplumes, filoplumes, and bristles (External Anatomy 6). Owls utilize their feathers more for disguise, where as the eagles and hawks utilize them for overall protection. Recourses that identify the specifics of movement quality through Laban movement in animalistic behavior, like the scholarly online article, “Observing Behavioral Qualities”, and entries from an online book, “External Anatomy” that illustrate visuals of a raptor’s anatomy, solidify how some species rely on core-distal connectivity, upper-lower connectivity, or can be identified with their movement efforts, whether they are bound, quick, light, etc… Moreover, online videos that focus on the owl, hawk, and eagle combine the anatomy and Laban movement aspects together into one resource, which I examine and use to formulate my own analysis through observation with these resources as a reference …show more content…
When looking at the effort these birds of prey exhibit, you look at space, time weight and flow. Space can either be indirect or direct, “ Direct space effort is channeled in a particular spatial direction and focused on one point in space. Indirect space effort is expansive and multifocal” (Fagan, et al. 169). Raptors are direct a majority of the time, for example, even when just observing their focus alone, they are intently stalking their prey or an intruder. For example, when one approaches an eagle in captivity, they are locked in on the intruder’s eyes, and use a direct motion to launch their talons in effort to protect themselves. In addition, their movements are never slow, nor do they take detours, unless they are circling their prey or waiting to attack from above. A raptor exhibits indirect movement when circling prey; the focus expresses an all-encompassing and all-around awareness. Another noticeable characteristic of these carnivorous avians is their speed. In efforts to successfully kill their prey or compete with other species they must be quick in their actions. When observing owls in the wild, one will notice their technique in capturing prey. For instance, whether they are after a stationary or