attack of the birds

[Skinner]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6815781973393100875

[Lustalbert]

F the video camera. Give me a un-choked 10 GA and some #6 shot.

[Dr. Pomade]

That was kind of cool and kind of creepy.

 

The birds all seemed to move collectively as one giant organic mass. Some of you zoological geeks will correct me if I'm astray here, but don't birds have some type of internal sensor - one that involves magnetism or something - that allows them to "sense" the nearness and movement of birds near them, which, in turn, allows them to swarm and dive and what not in unison? I think fish have something similar, which allows them to move collectively in schools like they do.

[BuckeyeGT]

The behavior is not a property of any individual bird, but rather emerges as a property of the group itself. There is no leader, no overall control, instead the flock's movements are determined by the moment-by-moment decisions of individual birds, following simple rules in response to interactions with their neighbors in the flock. Among other reasons it's pretty much a defense against predators. Having many eyes together ensures that at someone will spot a predator while others aren't paying attention. Once the group takes flight, the predator may have trouble focusing on a single target and become confused.

 

But yeah I saw a show on the discovery channel talking about birds' eyesight and how they can detect UV, and they are the only pentachromats in the entire animal kingdom whereas dogs and cats are dichromats (they can see only part of the range of colors in the visual spectrum of light wavelengths, humans have trichromatic vision.. we can see the entire spectrum). Cool stuff I guess..

 

who u tryin to impress?

[Mensan]

 

The birds all seemed to move collectively as one giant organic mass. Some of you zoological geeks will correct me if I'm astray here, but don't birds have some type of internal sensor - one that involves magnetism or something - that allows them to "sense" the nearness and movement of birds near them, which, in turn, allows them to swarm and dive and what not in unison? I think fish have something similar, which allows them to move collectively in schools like they do.

 

You're thinking of Spiderman and his "Spidey-Sense"...http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-spidey.gif

[coty061885]

The behavior is not a property of any individual bird, but rather emerges as a property of the group itself. There is no leader, no overall control, instead the flock's movements are determined by the moment-by-moment decisions of individual birds, following simple rules in response to interactions with their neighbors in the flock. Among other reasons it's pretty much a defense against predators. Having many eyes together ensures that at someone will spot a predator while others aren't paying attention. Once the group takes flight, the predator may have trouble focusing on a single target and become confused.

 

Damn, where'd you copy and paste that from? haha.

 

Yeah, Doctor, birds do have an extra sort of sense that's linked into the earth's magnetic field. It's how they know which way to fly when they migrate and what-not. Fish do the same thing, but I think they rely on their vision and not the magnetic field to organize their movements.