Nature has gifted pigeons with distinctive abilities
These birds can position themselves by recognising earth's magnetic field.
A recent study by German scientist Gerta Fleissner reported three dimentional iron like structure in a pigeon's beak that helps it in precise measurement of the three components of the earth's magnetic field.
For smaller distances, pigeons construct navigational maps.
Unlike our retina which has three different type of cone or colour receptors, pigeons have five cone types.With all possible combinations these birds can see three times as many colours as humans.
A 1995 paper released by Shigeru Watanabe , Junko Sakamoto, amd Masumi Wakita indicates that the birds can be trained to differentiate between the paintings of Monet and Picasso.The birds showed that they can differentiate between cubist and impressionist art.
A 2010 study published in 'Nature' indicates that there is a hierarchy mechanism in small groups of pigeons.It is assumed that the mechanism can operate at multiple level if the flock scales up to a larger group.
Next time you shoo away the pigeon pecking at a morsel on your window sill, spare some thought.The little birdies hides inside it rare talents you have never known-like making sense of colours-yellow,red , green-and understanding human sounds. Or for that matter, differentiating between paintings of Monet and Picasso. Seriously.
But there's something else it is really good at-winning competitons, making thousands of humans flock to kabootarbaazi events like the one in Agra in the last week of December. What people go for is not just the thrill of seeing pigeons doing our bidding, but the amazing science of training them to do so.
These birds can position themselves by recognising earth's magnetic field.
A recent study by German scientist Gerta Fleissner reported three dimentional iron like structure in a pigeon's beak that helps it in precise measurement of the three components of the earth's magnetic field.
For smaller distances, pigeons construct navigational maps.
Unlike our retina which has three different type of cone or colour receptors, pigeons have five cone types.With all possible combinations these birds can see three times as many colours as humans.
A 1995 paper released by Shigeru Watanabe , Junko Sakamoto, amd Masumi Wakita indicates that the birds can be trained to differentiate between the paintings of Monet and Picasso.The birds showed that they can differentiate between cubist and impressionist art.
A 2010 study published in 'Nature' indicates that there is a hierarchy mechanism in small groups of pigeons.It is assumed that the mechanism can operate at multiple level if the flock scales up to a larger group.
Next time you shoo away the pigeon pecking at a morsel on your window sill, spare some thought.The little birdies hides inside it rare talents you have never known-like making sense of colours-yellow,red , green-and understanding human sounds. Or for that matter, differentiating between paintings of Monet and Picasso. Seriously.
But there's something else it is really good at-winning competitons, making thousands of humans flock to kabootarbaazi events like the one in Agra in the last week of December. What people go for is not just the thrill of seeing pigeons doing our bidding, but the amazing science of training them to do so.
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