Re: 11 - that’s photographer’s grip used to hold the bird to make photography easier of the various feather tracts.
But I would deduct points for the person’s fingers being visible. The point of the picture is the bird. Just went out with a crew 2 weeks ago to band Eastern Screech Owls and my hands were not visible for pictures of three owls but were in one (hiss).
Failed to note that although the article does not mention, they probably caught the bird in a mist net.