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How do birds fly without Air Traffic Control?

  • Thread starter Thread starter morris
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Great shots, Morris.

I like the blurring in these as it adds to the sense of action. The Cardinal (still) against white snow would also be a great shot.

Timothy Dunnigan
http://www.helpforfamilies.com/photos/index.htm
http://www.pbase.com/tdunnigan/
morris said:


Fuji S602 + B-300, ISO 200, 1/400, f 5.0

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0211B.jpg

2x crop of Cardinal

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0210.jpg

0.2 seconds earlier

How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
 
How do you walk through a crowded train station without hitting anyone? Its a combination of senses, skill, reflexes, and intuition. I play hockey, where I have to not only get around stationary objects, but also moving ones, some of which INTEND to get in my way (sometimes violently!). Yet I can manage to not hit anything much of the time, and not hit anything that really alters my course 95% of the time. The last 5% is what band-aids are for ;-) All this while wearing ice skates, which a large percentage of the population cannot even begin to use effectively. Birds fly through the air, and yet don't seem to hit stuff (except your big picture window!). We might consider this remarkable, but I'm sure if you could ask the bird, he would not consider it extraordinary.

-CHUCK-
the other bird seems to be fleeing, Cardinals are red for a reason!

--
Fuji 602z
HP 7550
Still trying to make sense of it all.....
 
Thank you Timothy, I took lots of photos of the birds in the snow. I will be posting some of the better ones. Just stay with us and you may get to see that cardinal in show photo.

Morris
Timothy Dunnigan said:
Timothy Dunnigan
http://www.helpforfamilies.com/photos/index.htm
http://www.pbase.com/tdunnigan/
morris said:


Fuji S602 + B-300, ISO 200, 1/400, f 5.0

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0211B.jpg

2x crop of Cardinal

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0210.jpg

0.2 seconds earlier

How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
CHUCK, I suspect that flying to them is like waking to us. They just do it a lot faster. Since birds use bandages, I wonder what they do for the other 5%?

The birds are fleeing due to my bunking my lens into the window. The Blue Gray Nuthatch that appears in the last of the series heard this and set them all in motion.

Thanks for commenting,

Morris
-CHUCK- said:
How do you walk through a crowded train station without hitting
anyone? Its a combination of senses, skill, reflexes, and
intuition. I play hockey, where I have to not only get around
stationary objects, but also moving ones, some of which INTEND to
get in my way (sometimes violently!). Yet I can manage to not hit
anything much of the time, and not hit anything that really alters
my course 95% of the time. The last 5% is what band-aids are for
;-) All this while wearing ice skates, which a large percentage of
the population cannot even begin to use effectively. Birds fly
through the air, and yet don't seem to hit stuff (except your big
picture window!). We might consider this remarkable, but I'm sure
if you could ask the bird, he would not consider it extraordinary.

-CHUCK-
the other bird seems to be fleeing, Cardinals are red for a reason!

--
Fuji 602z
HP 7550
Still trying to make sense of it all.....
Click to expand...
 
The theory is that animals live at a speed geared to their perception and life span. One theory I've read says that each species has a heart capable of a maximum number of beats which actually varies little between species. Some species, however, need a very fast heartbeat to both keep alive and move very quickly and live short lives from the human perspective, others have slower heartbeats and move more slowly and live longer.

Because of this, most animals seem to be able to give humans a run around when cornered as their perceptions and reactions are so much quicker. Elephants, which have a similar lifespan to humans, are much more deliberate in their movement (not just a function of size) and are believed to perceive time and motion in the same time frame.

So, to answer the question, birds do not need ATC because they perceive, react and move in relation to their perceived time frame and avoid collisions in the air in the same way we avoid collisions, in our time frame, on a crowded street

PhilB
maha said:
morris said:


Fuji S602 + B-300, ISO 200, 1/400, f 5.0

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0211B.jpg

2x crop of Cardinal

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0210.jpg

0.2 seconds earlier

How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
They make sure everything is tweeked before taking off.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
PhilB
 
Thank you Phil.

Morris
Phil Blinkhorn said:
Because of this, most animals seem to be able to give humans a run
around when cornered as their perceptions and reactions are so much
quicker. Elephants, which have a similar lifespan to humans, are
much more deliberate in their movement (not just a function of
size) and are believed to perceive time and motion in the same time
frame.

So, to answer the question, birds do not need ATC because they
perceive, react and move in relation to their perceived time frame
and avoid collisions in the air in the same way we avoid
collisions, in our time frame, on a crowded street

PhilB
maha said:
morris said:


Fuji S602 + B-300, ISO 200, 1/400, f 5.0

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0211B.jpg

2x crop of Cardinal

http://www.qc.edu/~morris/DSCF0210.jpg

0.2 seconds earlier

How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
They make sure everything is tweeked before taking off.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
PhilB
Click to expand...
 
Morris:

What mode did you use to shoot these? Great shots by the way!!!!

--
Bobmax
 
morris said:
How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
They must have better communication as a flock doesn't collide and schools of fish don't crash during direction changes. However birds have trouble with clear windows.
No wonder I've had a strong feeling the s602z is a good action shot camera.
--
eL
s230, cp4500, g2.
 
Yes, the S602 is a great action camara.

Morris
elzolan said:
morris said:
How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
They must have better communication as a flock doesn't collide and
schools of fish don't crash during direction changes. However birds
have trouble with clear windows.
No wonder I've had a strong feeling the s602z is a good action shot
camera.
--
eL
s230, cp4500, g2.
Click to expand...
 
I'll bet if you could watch an up-close, slo-mo film of birds in a flock you'd see a lot more contact and josteling. It just happens too fast, and too far away, for us to see it. I remember watching a documentary on honey bees where they talked about flying ability, and they had slo-mo footage of bees entering the hive. Funny as heck! They come in 2 inches too high, crash headfirst off the wall, loop back and hit again 1/2 inch too high, then make it in (not all of them, obviously, but a bunch). In realtime, you never saw all the action, you'd see a fleeting glimpse that maybe one hit the wall, but you couldn't be sure.

I really enjoyed the post about heartbeats and speed-of-life. Seems to make sense to me....

-CHUCK-
elzolan said:
morris said:
How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
They must have better communication as a flock doesn't collide and
schools of fish don't crash during direction changes. However birds
have trouble with clear windows.
No wonder I've had a strong feeling the s602z is a good action shot
camera.
--
eL
s230, cp4500, g2.
Click to expand...
--
Fuji 602z
HP 7550
Still trying to make sense of it all.....
 
Chuck, I agree with you and think all have contributed interesting facts to this disquisition. When I posted this series I was looking for an interesting title and did not expect to start this rather interesting disquisition.

Morris
-CHUCK- said:
I really enjoyed the post about heartbeats and speed-of-life. Seems
to make sense to me....

-CHUCK-
elzolan said:
morris said:
How can they fly so close without any special navigation aids and
not collide?

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Morris
Click to expand...
They must have better communication as a flock doesn't collide and
schools of fish don't crash during direction changes. However birds
have trouble with clear windows.
No wonder I've had a strong feeling the s602z is a good action shot
camera.
--
eL
s230, cp4500, g2.
Click to expand...
--
Fuji 602z
HP 7550
Still trying to make sense of it all.....
Click to expand...
 
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