Try to find Eurasian Bullfinch from this picture |
Kimmo Huosionmaa
Springtime is the time when we will see many little birds. The main reason for ruffling their plumes is of course, that the bird, what is looking for the spouse is that bird wants to seem as big as possible. The big size means that the young birds get the best genes, what is available. But that is not the only reason for those birds are puffing out their plumes. And sometimes the reason for that is cold weather. The picture above the text portraits Eurasian bullfinch, what maybe want to play an Apple.
The reason for that behavior could be in the noise, what is in the air. The behavior, when birds turn their plumes like the balls makes birds invincible for echo sounder, what some beasts use for their hunting. But this behavior is also very simple purpose, the plumes of birds are very stiff, and their mission is to make those small birds like the bullfinch of above picture ball what is very difficult to eat. And if some snake would want to eat that little bird, that ball would seize in the throat of that animal.
Plumes are sometimes covered by wax, what makes them very hard to melt, and that little bird can stick to the throat of that kind of beast. Sometimes those birds would carry very strong gastric acid, what mission is to melt any seeds or small bug, what those birds eat. And the purpose of that acid is to melt the chitin core of bugs, and that would make those birds very hard to eat.
Then we are going back to the situation that some bird would make itself as a ball, could the reason for that be also that this little bird thinks that human is the enemy, and that's why it would act like this. But as I wrote earlier, birds are very sensitive for the ultrasound, because it is usually is the mark that some Owl is hanging around. Small Owls uses ultrasound in their echo sounders because they must have the ability to fly in dark forests.
The reason for that is those Owls are food for other raptors like Hawks, what are normally hunt their prey from open swamp and meadows. In summer must also Owls hunt in light time, because here in the North would the sunshine around the clock. And in those cases, Owls must flee to the bushes, if they meet bigger Raptors like Chicken goshawk. But the behavior that bird would ruffle the plumes can be marked as an ultrasound.
http://marxjatalous.blogspot.fi/p/spring-is-time-for-little-birds-like.html
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