For his new book "What's It Like To Be a Bird", David Allen Sibley’ did a 35-minute bird talk with beautiful images he created just for Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures.
(He answers cool questions like: “Why do birbs take baths?”)
cc:@amarand
Erhmagerd!!
Look at this illustration of a bird's lungs. Birds get fresh air EVEN WHEN THEY'RE BREATHING OUT!! There's no lag time on getting fresh air, it's always there and birds are never out of breathe.
Their lung systems is vastly more efficient and advanced then that of humans!!
@TheAbbotTrithemius @amarand
Lungs and air sacs - the only way to fly 😀
It's an amazing system.
It really is. It's like their breathing is analog and not dependent on a Inhale or exhale dichotomy (1 and 0's).
They have constant oxygen moving through. They're truly "one with the air".
@TheAbbotTrithemius Yes and it's a very lightweight system.
The air sacs have very thin, delicate membranes.
Add hollow bones, feathers, seeing in the UV spectrum - fascinating animals.
@amarand
@TheAbbotTrithemius @amarand
Add 7 more air sacs to that diagram. 9 air sacs. Very cool system.
@TheAbbotTrithemius
And they can control their pupil size.
Wait until you get into vocalizations and migration. 😁
It's gonna blow your mind.
Your posts are making me soooo happy.
@TheAbbotTrithemius
One last thing, you might enjoy this 2 min of an owl flying and the vortices generated.
Eagles have FOUR areas of detail within their vision. FOUR.. THey could read FOUR books at once if they wanted to..
Human's only have ONE.
ONE!!!
(Also some birds have 360 degree of vision AT ALL TIMES along the horizon and 180 degrees above their heads.
Constant air and constant vision of everything...)