The question : ‘Why do some*(see note below) birds bob their heads when walking?’ has perplexed scientists for many years. Some researchers suggest that head-bobbing may be correlated with the morphology of the retina, but others propose that it’s mechanically linked to the locomotor system, and that its visual functions are secondarily adapted. Either way, […]
Tag: Birds
Groucho Running (Locomotion, part 1)
Please observe the unusual locomotive behaviour which begins at around 55 seconds into this video – when Groucho Marx starts to run. Groucho is displaying a behaviour which scientists now call ‘Groucho Running’ *see note. But Groucho was by no means the first to develop this unusual gait. Take, for example the Tinamou. It also […]
Budgerigarian Contagious Yawning (quite untortoisean!)
Although scientists have failed to find evidence of contagious yawning in tortoises (though those scientists succeeded in winning an Ig Nobel Prize), other scientists have now found evidence, they say, of contagious yawning in budgies [a non-yawning specimen of which is pictured here in a photo by Elektrofisch]. They published a study about it: “Evidence for […]
Oddies in air & sea: Hitchcock, pelicans, & flying rays
Some oddities from the air and the sea: A new study about what got Into Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” birds: “Mystery behind Hitchcock’s birds,” Sibel Bargu [pictured here], Mary W. Silver, Mark D. Ohman, Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson and David L. Garrison, Nature Geoscience, vol. 5, nos. 2–3, 2012. Published online 22 December 2011. “On 18 […]