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Yeah pretty amazing article that was surprisingly not just clickbait. Especially this bit: Frigatebirds are the only seabirds that lack waterproof feathers — i
by roymurdock 10y ago
Yeah pretty amazing article that was surprisingly not just clickbait. Especially this bit:
Frigatebirds are the only seabirds that lack waterproof feathers — if they dive into the ocean or even land on its surface, the water will soak their plumage and prevent them from taking flight again. This should be a death knell to a species that dines exclusively on fish, but it's not. Frigatebirds can soar high above the ocean, eyes peeled for movement in the water below — a sign that a large predator, like tuna or dolphin, is scaring fish to the surface.
And this bit:
It's still not clear how the birds sleep during these epic journeys. Weimerskirch said there's evidence that they can shut down half their brains as they ascend on updrafts.
"They are probably getting small bouts of sleep at this time — maybe two to three minutes," he said.
Just awesome.
- HillaryBriss 10y ago(so sorry - cannot resist) It's not just awesome. It's frigate amazing! (please don't hate me. someone had to say it. once again, i apologize.)
- davidw 10y agoSorry about the downvoters - I thought it was funny!
- cdelsolar 10y agoBut that's not how you pronounce frigging.
- bitJericho 10y agoGet out.
- foota 10y agoIt's strange that they don't have issues with rain or moisture from clouds?
- goldenkey 10y agoPerhaps their feathers are water resistant but not water proof?
- holografix 10y agoThat's a really good point - how do they handle rain? Is there a benefit to not having water proof feathers?
- foota 10y agoI think water proofing generally is done via some sort of wax like secretion, so perhaps it saves weight? edit: or at least I think leaves have wax? edit 2, citations!: I don't have access, but this link looks promising, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v214/n5085/pdf/214318a0.pdf http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v214/n5085/pdf/214318a0... also, http://blog.galapagosecolodge.net/2014/03/frigate-birds-of-galapagos-islands.html http://blog.galapagosecolodge.net/2014/03/frigate-birds-of-g... paragraph 4 tl;dr birds have the Uropygial gland which secretes preen oil which most birds then rub over their feathers to keep the water out (the mechanism through which this keeps water out sounds somewhat contested, see wikipedia). The frigate bird has only a vestigial gland for this (sounds like the nature article suggests that the gland shrank due to behavior changes, rather than vice versa. Also sounds like the behavior changes may be due to the prey they feed off of and their habits?) Uropygial gland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uropygial_gland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uropygial_gland
- holografix 10y agoWow thanks for trying to find out more about this! This brings me to another question I often thought about: What's the nutritional cost of transforming food into fur or in this case wax...?
- foota 10y agoI think wax has a pretty simple structure, so probably not very high (but also a fairly high energy content? idek what I'm talking about). Feathers seem like they would be more difficult.