<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body>
<div>Hi Jim,</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for your ruminations regarding bird behavior. I especially like that you are considering individuals and their behavior and not grouping species as a whole.</div><div>Can you post the you tube video link again, that you referenced?</div><div><br></div><div>Robert </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><blockquote class="iosymail" style=""><div id="ymsg61250" class="ymsg6552893775" src="mid://AABRt4qGw1SQsCvlaSjkND9EeeZ/3.1"><br></div><div id="ymsg12088" class="ymsg6552893775" src="mid://AABRt4qGw1SQsCvlaSjkND9EeeZ/3.2">Hi again,<br><br> I've been mulling this topic over - pretty much continuously since I was<br>re-invigorated by the youtube video I posted previously. So what I'm<br>thinking now is that bird behavior is a curious/fascinating mix of both<br>instinctual and situational thinking.<br><br> On the instinctual side are things such as migration and courting - <br>but I'm<br>thinking it is primarily related to those behaviors on a 'grand <br>(global?) scale.<br>For instance - whether or not a particular species migrates - or doesn't <br>... etc.<br> But, there is considerable situational thinking with respect to when the<br>bird migrates or an individual bird's courting dance.<br><br> We've often heard that most bird behavior is related to 1) <br>availability of food,<br>2) sex, and 3) territory. While I agree with that - I also recognize <br>that there is a<br>lot of situational thinking ... for example, the trumpeter swans leave <br>whereever<br>they spent the night and come to the fields we look out over ... but <br>they don't<br>simply 'return to the same field they were at yesterday' - they seem to <br>select<br>where they will land as they are flying in. Do they "see" the potatoes <br>or do<br>they "smell" them? There is considerable variation in which field will <br>be used<br>on any given day. But they also don't go to one particular field (that <br>they were<br>at yesterday) and pick somewhere else "today" ... and then return to that<br>prior field a few days later. There is -some- movement in the middle of the<br>day ... but primarily if they choose a field they are there the entire <br>day. Some<br>small percentage of birds will leave an individual field in the late <br>morning - and<br>some move to that same field in the same time frame ... so there are choices<br>being made and individual birds (or small groups) are choosing to move.<br> There ae similar behaviors for other bird species - but always with a <br>certain<br>number of individual birds making their own "situational" choices in any<br>given day.<br><br> I'm a birding photographer. One thing that is apparent to me is that<br>individual birds of the same species can have huge differences in terms<br>of how they tolerate (or don't) humans near them. Some birds will<br>fly off much sooner than others. Some even seem to pretty much<br>ignore the presence of humans - witness the Short-eared Owls at the<br>East 90 which almost seem to not care about the photogs crowding<br>very close to them to get that 'perfect' shot. Sometimes.<br><br> From where I'm standing - it seems like a huge part of this phenomenon<br>is our (humans) tendency to try to overlay Human intelligence/behavior<br>on other species. I often hear people explaining bird behavior based<br>upon how a human would think/behave ... rather than simply observing<br>and describing the behavior(s) - and trying to see patterns in the way the<br>birds they see are behaving that are repeated over and over again. And<br>then, after considerable different observations have been made ... making<br>"sense" out of it.<br> - Jim in Skagit<br><br></div>_______________________________________________<br>Tweeters mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Tweeters@mailman11.u.washington.edu" href="mailto:Tweeters@mailman11.u.washington.edu">Tweeters@mailman11.u.washington.edu</a><br><a href="http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters" target="_blank">http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters</a><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
</body></html>