A deep-voiced black-capped chickadee may wonder why other birds ignore
it, but there could be a good reason behind the snub, according to
University of Alberta research that studied how the bird responds to
calls.
Dr. Chris Sturdy, a U of A psychology professor, and Dr. Isabelle
Charrier, a post-doctoral fellow in Sturdy's lab, modified the
black-capped chickadee calls, played those sounds back to the bird and
observed how it reacted. They found that the chickadee relies on several
acoustic features including pitch, order of the notes and rhythm of the
call. It also rejected the calls of the control bird, the gray-crowned
rosy finch, in favour of its own species. The findings are published in
the current edition of the journal Behavioural Processes.
10/19/2010 10:32 AM
Ben Carlsen wrote:
First of all, I love Chickadees, so cute and round and puffy.
But really, this is a really nice blog, I love all the information and wonderful pictures (really great pictures) you put into it. I know you must spend a lot of time on it.. Thanks for that. I was also wondering if maybe you could help a fellow bird lover out.. I have started trying to make a wecomic about birds..
http://thebird-feedercom/
maybe you could tell me what you think? I am trying to make it both realistic and silly and funny at the same time. So anycomments or suggestions you might have for me would be very helpful.. thanks a bunch in advance.. even if you just look at it and don’tcomment.
10/19/2010 11:09 AM
Scott wrote:
Ben,
Thanks for the comment. I'm going to post a link to your site and will include one of your cartoons. I hope that is okay. If not, let me know and I'll take it down.
