Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#2Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#3Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
Not unlike the technicolor rainbow that the mantis shrimp sees with its magic eyes. https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#4Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
They™ think the birds see magnetic field lines. There's a good PBS Space Time video about it:
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#5Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
They™ think the birds see magnetic field lines. There's a good PBS Space Time video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1ouV7iD8o
I think it was described as being similar to polarization, and when they're aligned properly (I'm not sure it's N/S) with the magnetic field, everything looks "clearer."
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#6Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
Can probably feel it (with whatever biomagnets they have) the same way we feel a repulsive force when trying push two like poles together. So imagine a wall of that force you walk along. It's not that large of a force. You can leap the invisible wall and find another parallel wall if you want but it's just more convenient to follow it till you find a nesting ground or food or whatever.
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#7Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
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Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#8Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
Not unlike the technicolor rainbow that the mantis shrimp sees with its magic eyes. https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
Don’t forget zefrank’s exposé on the mantis shrimp: https://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#9Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
When parrots dance it is always slightly off rhythm, but surely theyre sync'd with some aspect of the signal
Re: Unravelling the enigma of bird magnetoreception
#10Do you suppose they actually see the magnetic field, or does the avian brain process it some other way? It's somehow more difficult to imagine being a bird after reading this. Unravelling the enigma to get to the mystery.
Yeah, the proposed mechanism with cryptochromes works in the bird's retina, but it's unknown if it affects the normal visual field or is separate. There's some cool visualizations of it here: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/cryptochrome/ (from this paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20655831/)