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Stringfoot Pigeon Help - What is stringfoot?
https://www.stringfootpigeon.com/, posted 20 Feb by peter in bird environment health
Stringfoot is a term used to describe pigeons whose feet have become entangled with foreign matter, whether actual string, thread, monofilament, real or artificial human hair (most common), dental floss, yarn, or the many other materials discarded by the human population of cities.
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Whether adult birds or chicks, these foreign materials wrapped around their feet or legs — and sometimes binding their feet together — results in pain, infection, loss of digits or entire feet, and the subsequent inability to walk, stand, perch, land, feed or bathe properly, sometimes leading to illness or death...
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Wild hummingbirds can see colors that humans can't — study
https://www.inverse.com/science/wild-hummingbirds-can-see-colors-that-humans-cant-study, posted Jun '20 by peter in bird color science
Humans can't see UV light, but birds can. By combining spectral light with UV, researchers proved that birds can differentiate between those colors. This means that when the birds look at objects we can see as spectral light, they are likely seeing many more colors because that fourth cone gives the ability to see more color combinations.
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Max Planck Neuroscience on Nautilus: First Evidence of Sleep in Flight
maxplanck.nautil.us/article/326/first-evidence-of-sleep-in-flight, posted 2018 by peter in bird science
The flight data recorder revealed that frigatebirds sleep in both expected and unexpected ways during flight. During the day the birds stayed awake actively searching for foraging opportunities. As the sun set, the awake EEG pattern switched to a SWS pattern for periods lasting up to several minutes while the birds were soaring. Surprisingly, SWS could occur in one hemisphere at a time or both hemispheres together. The presence of such bihemispheric sleep indicates that unihemispheric sleep is not required to maintain aerodynamic control. Nonetheless, when compared to sleep on land, SWS was more often unihemispheric in flight.
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Så räddades Nordeuropas största rovfågel från utrotning - P4 Kristianstad | Sveriges Radio
https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=101&artikel=6769681, posted 2017 by peter in audio bird environment inswedish sweden
Men hoten finns fortfarande kvar. Miljögifter, skogsavverkning, tjuvjakt och plundring av bon är faror för den känsliga arten.
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Nearly every seabird may be eating plastic by 2050
news.sciencemag.org/environment/2015/08/nearly-every-seabird-may-be-eating-plastic-2050, posted 2015 by peter in bird environment science
By 2050, about 99.8% of the species studied will have eaten plastic, the researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Consuming plastic can cause myriad problems, Wilcox says. For example, some types of plastics absorb and concentrate environmental pollutants, he notes. After ingestion, those chemicals can be released into the birds’ digestive tracts, along with chemicals in the plastics that keep them soft and pliable. But plastic bits aren’t always pliable enough to get through a gull’s gut. Most birds have trouble passing large bits of plastic, and they build up in the stomach, sometimes taking up so much room that the birds can’t consume enough food to stay healthy.
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macaulaylibrary.org
macaulaylibrary.org/, posted 2014 by peter in audio bird download free search
We invite you to explore the world's largest archive of wildlife sounds and videos.
Our mission: to collect, preserve, and facilitate the use of wildlife recordings for science, education, conservation, and the arts.
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Train your rat: behavioural science at home | Raspberry Pi
www.raspberrypi.org/train-your-rat-behavioural-science-at-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=train-your-rat-behavioural-science-at-home, posted 2014 by peter in automation bird cognition diy toread
They’re not just used by behavioural scientists: a Skinner box can be a useful device for training pets, especially pets with a reasonable amount of smarts, like parrots or rats. It can automate the process you may have already used with your pet, where “correct” behaviour is rewarded – walk to heel, get a doggy snack.
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Skinner boxes are also pretty expensive. So Katherine Scott, computer vision and robotics expert, electronics ninja and rat owner/trainer, has built her own, which she intends to release as an open source device when she’s finished refining it.
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Goffin's Cockatoos Can Solve Complex Mechanical Problems, Shows Study | Biology | Sci-News.com
www.sci-news.com/biology/science-goffins-cockatoos-mechanical-problems-01198.html, posted 2013 by peter in bird cognition msm science
In the study, 10 untrained Goffin’s cockatoos faced a puzzle box showing a nut behind a transparent door secured by a series of five different interlocking devices, each one jamming the next along in the series. To retrieve the nut the birds had to first remove a pin, then a screw, then a bolt, then turn a wheel 90 degrees, and then shift a latch sideways. § One bird, called Pipin, cracked the problem unassisted in less than two hours, and several others did it after being helped either by being presented with the series of locks incrementally or being allowed to watch a skilled partner doing it.
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Watch This Parrot Drive A Parrot-Sized Robot Car | Popular Science
www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-12/watch-parrot-drive-parrot-sized-buggy-car, posted 2012 by peter in bird robotics video
This African gray parrot named Pepper can not fly, since his wings are clipped. But he can drive a little buggy designed by his owner, Andrew Gray, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student at the University of Florida. So that pretty much makes Pepper the Mario Andretti of birds.
Here's a video showing how the buggy works. Looks like fun! And the song is fun until (spoiler alert) the robot gains sentience. Anyway, enjoy!
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Current Biology - Spontaneous innovation in tool manufacture and use in a Goffin’s cockatoo
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(12)01065-2, posted 2012 by peter in bird cognition science
Our observations prove that innovative tool-related problem-solving is within this species’ cognitive resources. As it is unknown for tools to play a major role in this species’ ecology, this strengthens the view that tool competences can originate on general physical intelligence, rather than just as problem-specific ecological solutions (see discussions in [2,4]). The precise cognitive operations underlying such innovations are still unknown, but future studies may continue to unravel them by modifying the tasks, and controlling the developmental history and pre-experimental experience across different groups of subjects.