Posted on 04/30/2008 11:26:08 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Birds can tell if you are watching them - because they are watching you.
In humans, the eyes are said to be the 'window to the soul', conveying much about a person's emotions and intentions. New research demonstrates for the first time that starlings also respond to a human's gaze.
Predators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so direct eye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Julia Carter, a PhD student at the University of Bristol, and her colleagues, set up experiments that showed starlings will keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. However, if the person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall.
Carter said "This is a great example of how animals can pick up on very subtle signals and use them to their own advantage". Her results are published online today (30 April) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Wild starlings are highly social and will quickly join others at a productive foraging patch. This leads to foraging situations that are highly competitive. An individual starling that assesses a relatively low predation risk, and responds by returning more quickly to a foraging patch (as in the study), will gain valuable feeding time before others join the patch.
Responses to obvious indicators of risk - a predator looming overhead or the fleeing of other animals - are well documented, but Carter argued that a predator's head orientation and eye-gaze direction are more subtle indicators of risk, and useful since many predators orient their head and eyes towards their prey as they attack.
This research describes the first explicit demonstration of a bird responding to a live predator's eye-gaze direction. Carter added: "By responding to these subtle eye-gaze cues, starlings would gain a competitive advantage over individuals that are not so observant. This work highlights the importance of considering even very subtle signals that might be used in an animal's decision-making process."
Do these birds understand that a human is looking at them, and that they might pose some risk? As yet, this question has not been answered. But whether or not the responses involve some sort of theory of mind, and whether or not they are innate or acquired, the result is that starlings are able to discriminate the very subtle eye-gaze cues of a nearby live predator and adjust their anti-predator responses in a beneficial manner.
This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the University of Bristol.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Bristol University
Use a scoped .22 w/hollowpoints.
I wasn’t aware African Grays were predatory. I thought they ate strictly seeds and fruit.
putting up bluebird nest boxes, with an 1.5 inch entrance hole, will prevent cowbirds from entering to deposit their egg.(they usually have only one) Also removing dead trees and branches where cowbirds like to sit and spy on other nesting birds. If they can't see them, they won't know when to add there eggs to the nest. Cow bird hatches depend on proper timing. the egg hatch a few days earlier than most other birds eggs, so they watch other nesting birds carefully so they know when to add their egg.
Cool photo!
Actually...now that I think about it, that is the right answer. It just the scale that is wrong.
You can buy rounds for a .22 that are loaded with very small pellets. 1 mm in size. Not sure of the choke you get on them....I imagine it would be very tight. But it would certainly increase you chances of a kill while reducing the damage to the environs....and the normal range of a .22 round.
I used some many years ago and they were rather effective when you had a fairly close target and didn't want a stray .22 round heading for G-d knows where. Very dangerous, that.
Anchor Birdies! Build the wall now! ;)
Why was the cage named Moses?
I didn't say he was a predator. I said he is a "prey creature." In the wild, he would be preyed upon by just about anything.
Starlings ....rats with wings.
Carolyn
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