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To me, that is WAY more impressive (so is the 4700m altitude!). The bird got completely tossed around for hours in extremely high winds and then still navigate

by bsder 3y ago

To me, that is WAY more impressive (so is the 4700m altitude!). The bird got completely tossed around for hours in extremely high winds and then still navigated back to it's breeding ground. That's some amazing navigation skill.

busyant 3y ago
> The bird got completely tossed around for hours in extremely high winds and then still navigated back to it's breeding ground. And I got lost on one of the simplest hiking trails in a neighboring town last week. I tried to go off-path to circumvent a fallen tree. After about 15 minutes of thinking that I was just steps from reaching my destination, I ended up back at my starting point! I'm ashamed.
- RHSman2 3y ago
  I believe this is how humanity will die. Internal TomTom degradation!!!
finite_depth 3y ago
I don't know about this specific bird, but many birds have what are essentially biological compasses built into them.
- nomel 3y ago
  Not sure why this was flagged dead. It's a fact that some birds are sensitive to magnetic fields [1]: > They do this with the help of the magnetically sensitive proteins in their eyes and the magneto-receptive cells in the vestibular nucleus in their brain. [1] https://phys.org/news/2022-02-compass-birds-ways-foreign.html#:~:text=To%20date%2C%20studies%20show%20that,vestibular%20nucleus%20in%20their%20brain https://phys.org/news/2022-02-compass-birds-ways-foreign.htm....
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    Allegedly, dogs too. Unclear how but they align north-south when pooping if they get the chance.
- tasuki 3y ago
  Yes, but that by itself does not help all that much? I give you a compass and an 11 hour ride on a typhoon. The compass won't give you magical ability to return to your starting spot.
  - samus 3y ago
    The compass allows me to track in which direction I'm roughly blown. Not on the scale of seconds, but hours. As soon as I escape the typhoon, I can start going back.
kk6mrp 3y ago
You're forgetting that it had GPS!

by bsder 3y ago

busyant 3y ago

> The bird got completely tossed around for hours in extremely high winds and then still navigated back to it's breeding ground. And I got lost on one of the simplest hiking trails in a neighboring town last week. I tried to go off-path to circumvent a fallen tree. After about 15 minutes of thinking that I was just steps from reaching my destination, I ended up back at my starting point! I'm ashamed.

RHSman2 3y ago
I believe this is how humanity will die. Internal TomTom degradation!!!

finite_depth 3y ago

I don't know about this specific bird, but many birds have what are essentially biological compasses built into them.

nomel 3y ago
Not sure why this was flagged dead. It's a fact that some birds are sensitive to magnetic fields [1]: > They do this with the help of the magnetically sensitive proteins in their eyes and the magneto-receptive cells in the vestibular nucleus in their brain. [1] https://phys.org/news/2022-02-compass-birds-ways-foreign.html#:~:text=To%20date%2C%20studies%20show%20that,vestibular%20nucleus%20in%20their%20brain https://phys.org/news/2022-02-compass-birds-ways-foreign.htm....
- throwaway290 3y ago
  Allegedly, dogs too. Unclear how but they align north-south when pooping if they get the chance.
tasuki 3y ago
Yes, but that by itself does not help all that much? I give you a compass and an 11 hour ride on a typhoon. The compass won't give you magical ability to return to your starting spot.
- samus 3y ago
  The compass allows me to track in which direction I'm roughly blown. Not on the scale of seconds, but hours. As soon as I escape the typhoon, I can start going back.

kk6mrp 3y ago

You're forgetting that it had GPS!