Attitude (heraldry) - Attitudes of Birds

Attitudes of Birds

Some attitudes describe the positioning of birds. The eagle is so often found displayed in early heraldry that this position came to be presumed of the eagle unless some other attitude is specified in the blazon. One peculiar attitude among birds, reserved only to the pelican, is the pelican in her piety (i.e. wings raised, piercing her own breast to feed her chicks in the nest). This symbol carries a particular religious meaning, and became so popular in heraldry that pelicans rarely exist in heraldry in any other position. A distinction is sometimes observed, however, between a pelican "vulning herself" (alone, piercing her breast) and "in her piety" (surrounded by and feeding her chicks).

Several terms refer to the particular position of the wings, rather than the attitude of the bird itself. A bird in nearly any attitude, except trussed, may have wings displayed, addorsed, elevated or inverted.

• Wings displayed are spread to the sides to fill the area of the field. Here, the bird's right wing is extended forward and its left wing extended rearward, turned so that the undersides of both wings are fully shown.
• Wings addorsed are raised as if about to take flight, so that only the top of the bird's right wing shows behind the fully displayed left wing.
• Wings elevated are raised with the wing tips pointing upward.
• Wings inverted are raised with the wing tips pointing downward.