Under Clear Skies

Not just the end to a fine Sunrise Birding tour ;), but rather a combination of a few cool science articles sent to me over the last couple of weeks. The first is one passed on by Mike Ferrari, one of the Sunrise Birding walk regulars about how blue birds develop their amazingly bright plumage, not through pigment but through nanostructures that to the layman have a similar structure to beer foam (here).

I’m sure a few of you have also seen some of the viral videos on the web that have been doing the rounds of amazing dancing cockatoos. Well it seems like there are some scientific studies (this kind of study makes me wish I hadn’t given up on science after my Chemistry GCSE) that have discovered that as well as humans, some birds have an absolutely spot on sense of rhythm. The BBC website (here) has an article and some cool videos of the birds in action!  I have to say in my experience that the birds could probably teach most of the people I see down in SONO a bit about getting their groove on!!! Although to be fair the birds probably aren’t quite so influenced by the liquid mentioned in the first article when they get to strut their stuff.