Why do male birds have such excellent plumage, do birds dream in tunes, and why do seagulls consume from trash bins?
RNZ Sunday Mornings spoke with Irish wildlife ecologist and bird behaviouralist Dr Grainne Cleary, author of Your Backyard Birds and host of ABC program, Good Things Come in Trees, about the commonness in between human behaviour and birds.
Clearly says birds are quite like human beings.
“The more I learn about birds, the more I believe they are a lot like us since they reside in societies the method we do, and you have actually gotta act correct when you remain in a society.
“If you’re not, you get tossed out. And that’s what takes place, specifically with ravens. If you have actually taken a look at ravens, if a private cheats, the other ravens will in fact stop communicating with it, will in fact overlook it and cut it out since they do not like cheaters.”
Clearly said similar to human beings, birds play to learn how to communicate with other people and each other.
“A great deal of our birds have these long youths, which suggests they’re not all set. They do not enter into sexual maturity till they reach about 7, about 6 or 7.
“So, they have this long youth and it’s throughout this time they learn similar to us, how to communicate with other people.
“If you think of kids, what do they learn? They learn how to end up being little grownups. They learn, you understand you do not punch somebody, you do not pull somebody’s hair. Birds learn the very same and they will have fun with each other to learn, how far can I press this prior to the other bird says no you have actually hurt me, and they’ll stop playing.
“So, they’ll need to learn all these, these techniques as they grow. Very much the method kids play Mommy and Daddy,” she said.
Why do male birds have such excellent plumage?
Clearly said it’s suggested to reveal the female bird that it can be a good papa.
She said the male bird typically has intense colours since it reveals that it has actually reached its maturity.
“Some birds will get a more excellent plumage to reveal that they have actually reached sexual maturity and likewise that they’re strong.
“It’s like diet plan. If our diet plan is truly bad, it displays in our skin. It displays in our hair, it’s the very same for birds.
“So, birds that are taking on other males, the female will pick the one that has that intense, stunning plumage since it reveals that that male will make a good papa. It reveals that he’s good and strong.”
Do birds dream in tune?
Clearly said they do, as she spoke about the subject of her next book.
“Did you understand that when birds sleep they practice music in their head? So that tune sounds much better the next day.
“So, if a bird does not get a good night’s sleep, specifically a young songbird, it does not learn its tune effectively and it can’t sing too the next day. So, sleep is extremely essential for birds to learn, simply as it is for our kids,” she said.
Why do seagulls consume from trash bins?
She said seagulls can consuming anything, nevertheless consuming in human locations was an adjustment, as an outcome of overfishing.
“Seagulls have sort of left the sea since, part of it is because, we are overfishing and it’s more difficult for them to discover food. If they come inland and they can discover food a lot much easier, specifically around ideas and rubbish where they can forage and if they consume something bad for them, something that does not concur with them, they can regurgitate it back up, so they do not need to deal with it, if they have actually consumed the plastic.
“So that’s a cool adjustment to enable them to learn what they can consume and what they can’t.”
Cleary said seagulls gained from viewing each other and human beings, and was among the most intelligent birds.
* Dr Grainne Cleary remains in New Zealand to discuss her latest book, Why Birds Do That? at the Auckland Writers Festival.
