Bird's foot (heraldry)

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In heraldry , the bird's foot is a common figure that more or less stylized a natural bird's foot . It can be found, for example, in the coats of arms of the von Kerckow , von dem Knesebeck and von Freher families .

presentation

Coat of arms of the von der Kere family in the vault of the cathedral cloister in Würzburg Cathedral

A bird's foot is shown with long, sharp and curved claws, often with a piercing tinge . Often feathers are still shown on the muzzle (these also often with a piercing tinge). The bird's foot is usually shown individually in the coat of arms, but also occurs in pairs or in groups.

In the early days of heraldry, no visual distinction was made between the feet and catches of individual bird species. It cannot be concluded from early representations whether the respective bird's foot belongs to a songbird, a bird of prey, a swimming bird or a flightless bird, nor can it be said with absolute certainty which bird it is. The toe arrangement of the heraldic bird's foot does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the corresponding bird species, because the anisodactyl toe arrangement was and is almost always shown (three front toes and one rear toe).

Later, in addition to the bird's foot, the special bird's foot representations established themselves as the eagle catch , chicken feet, griffin claws , webbed feet and so on, whereby the representations could change both in one direction as well as in the other over the centuries. For example, a swimming bird foot (goose foot) was originally shown in the coat of arms of Unterriexingen ; today, however, the coat of arms is emblazoned as a "black eagle catch" . And in the Önsbach coat of arms there was originally a representation similar to a chicken's foot; later this representation was supplemented with webbed foot patterns.

In the description of the coat of arms of a bird's foot, the position and posture of the bird's foot must be mentioned (for example: "Shield with a bird's foot bent to the right" ).

The depiction of the bird's foot in the coat of arms is also suitable for holding objects, in particular weapons such as arrows.

gallery

Coat of arms

Family coat of arms

See also

Web links

Commons : Bird's foot in the coat of arms  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Eagle catch in the coat of arms  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Claws in Heraldry  - collection of images, videos and audio files