A sensory ecology framework is used in a new research study to discover why birds fly into prominent structures, such as power lines, fences, communication masts, wind turbines, and buildings. Scientists have previously found that birds fly into power lines because they have blind spots in their field of vision. When in flight, birds may turn their heads to look down, either with the binocular field or with the lateral part of an eye’s visual field. Behavior like this may be usual for them and results in certain species being at temporarily blind while flying. Also, reflections in windows of buildings may startle a bird and encourage it to “attack” the window. In a new study, it was found that even if birds are looking ahead, frontal vision may not be as good as side vision because vision in birds may be tuned for the detection of movement rather than simply seeing things in front of them. As for reducing the collisions, there is little to be done.http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/42485
This article is interesting to me because just recently a bird flew into my back window. I always assumed birds just got confused with reflection and thought the space just continued. However, it makes sense they would just not be paying enough attention to what's ahead and instead paying close attention to movements for both food and predators. It's almost sad that these birds are searching for things harmful to them, when the most harmful thing is right in front of them. I suppose there's nothing humans can really do to prevent these accidents, it's a natural thing. However, I do believe if a bird happens to run into your window, you should at least check to see if it's dead or inured and take it to a animal hospital if it's the latter.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting article because it helped me understand how birds act and why they do things. It's also interesting that birds have better side vision then front vision because most people probably wouldnt think that. Even though it's natural, I almost wish that birds wouldn't be impaired in this way so they aren't harmed.
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