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How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

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Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#81

Post by throwup238 »

morkalork wrote: post #42
vidarh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London apparently has a high density of them (but high density still only means something like 40 breeding pairs), and some people are all excited about the prospect that they can do something about the rapidly rising wild parakeet population...

I'm having a hard time squaring away the image of grey gloomy London also being overrun with colourful tropical looking birds, I had to google it and see.

They’re surprisingly well adapted to a large range of temperatures because of the species found in temperate rainforests at higher altitudes. They frequently enough escape from pet stores and zoos that there are many sizable populations spread out around the world. The one nearest me is the infamous Pasadena parrots [1] which is made up of thousands of birds likely built up over decades of escapes. There are populations in Chicago, New York, Rome, Tokyo, and plenty of other cities in the world.

[1] https://www.lafieldguide.com/p/the-pasadena-parrots

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#82

Post by quinnirill »

im3w1l wrote: post #39
vikingerik wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there is survivor bias there, of course; you don't see the ones that didn't learn to dodge...

But it makes you wonder why they cut it that close. What benefit they get from it. I can think of several plausible reasons but none that is self-evidently true.

This is quite common prey animal behavior. Larger predators have a harder time adapting to rapid turns made just as the jaws/claws are about to snap shut.

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#83

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #50

I once wrote a personal’s ad in SQL on Craigslist, back when they had that section. A DBA replied and asked if I wanted hawking. She had a Cooper’s hawk. I met her at a commercial park in a Saturday morning. She was driving a Honda CRV, the hawk was in the front passenger seat, and I hopped into the back seat. She started driving and spotted some crows. The hawk saw them as well. Wearing a “don’t kill me either your…

And this, kids, is a Markov chain.

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#84

Post by rzzzt »

dmd wrote: post #52
throwanem wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really know what it's like to be a bird, of course, but I have to imagine their subjective experience of duration differs greatly from ours.

Search for "flicker fusion rate" to learn a lot more about this.

Mine is 42 Hz according to a recent examination. Are high refresh rate monitors are wasted on this pair of eyes?

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#85

Post by lloeki »

sethhochberg wrote: post #64
happyopossum wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would you care to expound on that?

In the US, buzzard is pretty much always slang for a turkey vulture. The common buzzard in Europe/Asia is a different bird entirely.

> The common buzzard in Europe/Asia is a different bird entirely

Funnily enough in France:

- buzzard is "buse" (mostly - although not limited to - Buteo[1])

- there's an unrelated yet identically pronounced "busard" (Circus[2]).

- EDIT: oh, and "balbuzard" (Pandion[3] a.k.a ospreys)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteo

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_(bird)

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandion_(bird)

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#86

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

throwanem wrote: post #30
krisoft wrote: post #6

I have a similar story. I was taxiing a Cessna 152 at LHBS. It is a big grassy field. On that day there were a large flock of black birds sitting on the grass. I made the usual radio call to announce that I'm leaving the runway and taxiing to the tie-downs when the birds flitted away just between my airplane's nose and my destination. The birds outside of that "road" by roughly a wingspan distance remained on the gro…

I see pigeons and sparrows dodge cars by inches, too. For that matter I do the same myself! Sparrows hawk insects out of the air, and I believe starlings also. Predicting motion would need to be second nature, I think. Like skillfully catching a ball, but much more so and between your teeth...

Squirrels, OTOH...

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#87

Post by cs02rm0 »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #50

I once wrote a personal’s ad in SQL on Craigslist, back when they had that section. A DBA replied and asked if I wanted hawking. She had a Cooper’s hawk. I met her at a commercial park in a Saturday morning. She was driving a Honda CRV, the hawk was in the front passenger seat, and I hopped into the back seat. She started driving and spotted some crows. The hawk saw them as well. Wearing a “don’t kill me either your…

I once wrote a personal’s ad in SQL on Craigslist, back when they had that section. A DBA replied and asked if I wanted hawking.

I feel I have to reply, but I have no idea what to say.

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#88

Post by throwanem »

rzzzt wrote: post #84
dmd wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search for "flicker fusion rate" to learn a lot more about this.

Mine is 42 Hz according to a recent examination. Are high refresh rate monitors are wasted on this pair of eyes?

I don't know. Have you tried one? That's neither the rhetorical nor the dismissive response it may seem...

Re: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

#90

Post by tsss »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #50

I once wrote a personal’s ad in SQL on Craigslist, back when they had that section. A DBA replied and asked if I wanted hawking. She had a Cooper’s hawk. I met her at a commercial park in a Saturday morning. She was driving a Honda CRV, the hawk was in the front passenger seat, and I hopped into the back seat. She started driving and spotted some crows. The hawk saw them as well. Wearing a “don’t kill me either your…

That's really horrible. Crows can feel pain too, you know.
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