Kookaburra Head Tracking
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| Brave Baby Burra |
Soon after my hand feeding started, I made a discovery that
blew me away.
I found I could wobble them, move them up, down, back,
forth & their head never moves – it remained motionless. Regardless of what
their body was doing, their head never moved. I found this amazing.
An example of evolutionary adaptation.
When looking up at them perched high up in the trees, with
branches swaying, it is obvious to see why the modification.
What I didn’t know until
I googled it, is that birds can’t move their eyes. Unlike us, when we move our
head, our eyes move to stay focused (I love google). So Kookaburra need their
head to remain stationary to stay focused.
This is called “Head Tracking”
In this slow motion vid of Bitey Burra, notice when landing his head
never moves. It remains completely locked on his landing, even though his body
& wings are going in all directions.
And, it’s not all birds that have this ability.
Some species have it, others don’t.
Cats have this ability as well.
Wikipedia has some interesting stuff on bird vision.
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