Ultraviolet robin?
No camera walk today, just a dog walk and then some gardening. As I was turning over the top bed a robin came planing in to pick up worms. I'd hoped s/he would so had the camera out there (carefully away from the earth) and had even dug in a spade for a visitor to perch on, but this was declined. Having got worms the robin sat on a tree and sang its little heart out. Oh how I love these birds.
Much of the afternoon I've been reading Ed Yong's book on animal senses, An Immense World, in which I discovered two interesting factoids about robins. First that these most stay-at-home birds can navigate over huge distances by using the world's magnetic field. Why? They don't go anywhere? Second that 'more than 90% of songbirds whose sexes are indistinguishable to us' (as robin's are) infact have UV patterns in their feathers that tell them apart to other birds. Blue tits are a prime example.
Humans can be very blind ;)))
Okay, that's enough stuff from me. Have a great Sunday evening and a good start to your week xx
Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.