Birds can't see glass; fact or fiction?

in #steemstem7 years ago (edited)

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Hello people of steemopolis, it's @geniusvillain here again.

Heave you ever seen a bird crashed into glass (windows from buildings or just a car wind screen) before?
Have you ever wondered why they keep crashing into glasses? It seems they love committing suicide or they are tired of living. I was watching an animation from two years ago (2016) titled "Storks". It's about a company that offers delivery services; where birds delivered babies to families (humans). Something Happened and they stopped delivering babies, they just deliver electronic gadgets and other stuffs like that. Enough of the talk about STORKS. I really think you should see it, it is an awesome cartoon.

Something was mentioned in the movie that inspired me to drop this article. It wasn't just mentioned, it was described! They said and I quote

"Birds can't see glasses"

I began asking my self; how true is this? Was this fiction or fact? I was thinking at first that it was probably just fiction (how the animator designed his universe in the animated movie). But then I remembered that I've seen birds crashing into glasses in some movies (I can't recall any movies just yet, just the memory. Who knows my brain could be messing with me, lol).

I consulted my oracle (google) and it turns out that really birds can't "detect" glasses even with their binocular vision! What they perceive is some reflection of vegetation or the sky. They could also see through the glass and think it is a empty space they could just pass through. It might even see a reflection of itself and try to attack! This is because they feel the reflection is a threat to their territory. Although it happens mostly in the spring.
According to a study in the year 2014, close to a billion birds die from collision with windows in the United States. .

Birds fly with high speed and on impact with the glass, they deal a great amount of damage and die as a result. Their death is not necessarily immediately; it could be later probably after it flies away. Their death is usually as a result of bruising and internal bleeding mostly on the brain.

Muhlenberg College ornithologist, Daniel Klem made a research of this issue and wrote it the 1970’s that;

“Glass is an indiscriminate killer that takes the fit as well as the unfit of a species’ population.”

His description of glasses is not far fetched.

I can even go as far as saying even we humans can't see clear glasses of some amount of thickness. The position of light source and the person looking at the glass will determine if the glass could be detected or not.

I think birds see glasses just as we humans do but don’t have the ”brains” to analyze what they see. If we could have a human that haven’t seen or come across glass before, the chances of crashing into the glass would be high and it reduces after the crash. That is because we humans learn from experience and we would suspect the presence of glass when the image we see gets funny.
Unlike birds, we can learn faster and determine if we are seeing a reflection or some real image (the reflection would change position as we move towards glasses if the glass is fixed). I feel like saying we humans are just too smart or birds are just too dumb (it goes both ways) 😂.

Could birds be able to learn like humans how to determine where there is glasses let’s say they don’t deal enough damage to take their lives on the impact with the glass?
Could there be ways we humans çould make glasses detectable to birds?

REFERENCES

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All about birds


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@geniusvillain

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Wow. I watched the movie, i was actually thinking it was a fiction . Thanks i have gain something today.

I thought the same. Thanks for stopping by.

What about evolution?

Do you think that from billion years from now, birds will evolve to be able to see glasses?

There's a moral from this: "It might even see a reflection of itself and try to attack! This is because they feel the reflection is a threat to their territory. "

Some people are like birds; show them the truth about themselves and they get all defensive

Good post

Hello @iamthegray

Do you think that from billion years from now, birds will evolve to be able to see glasses?

I think in a billion years, we wouldn't worry about birds crashing into glasses. We humans might have left earth for other planets, don't mind me lol. Birds might be able to see glasses. It might take a great amount of time but I fell they should be able to adapt to the modern world if they want to live in it.

Thanks for reading.

Great post bro. Based on our five senses, I am sure our learning process differ so well from the birds.

I was thinking animals generally could learn just like that do know predators (other animals). It's not like they was born with the knowledge that some other animals are dangerous to their existence. About seeing glasses, it could take some time (if it is possible). I just feels it's not impossible.