The birds are still great. Crows can use tools and be skeptical of specific people. Hi pies can recognize themselves in the mirror. Now, Hawks is using traffic signals to find prey. Field of Ethics.
The story begins with Vladimir Dinets, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the author of the study, and at a crossroads in West Orange, New Jersey, near his home. As a zoologist, he has long been aware of animals’ perceptions and understanding of urban environments, especially the relationship between birds and cars. Scientists have previously observed crows patrolling U.S. highways, waiting for road killers and songbirds to use cars to hide on predators.
Dinets are looking for these fun interactions as the young Cooper’s eagle migrates to his neighborhood and starts doing some brilliant things.
Dinets wrote in a guest editorial Field of Ethics. But sometimes, a pedestrian crosses the road, causing cars to pile up all the way to a small, dense tree. Pedestrian “walking” signals will also make sounds, indicating that it is time to walk.
One morning the restaurant saw eagles gushing out of the trees and flying to the very low on the car line, crossing the streets between cars, and diving into the vicinity of the houses in it.
Then the same thing happened again. Say it again.
It turns out that families living in that house near the dense trees like to have supper in their front yard. In response, birds (such as sparrows and pigeons) will rush to the remaining debris there.
This is an easy option for eagles, which will dive into the yard to capture the aforementioned sparrows and doves. But, strangely, the Eagle does this only when cars line up along the block.
Dinets eventually discovered that the car line provided a cover for the eagle, who had learned to recognize the sound of pedestrians’ “walking” signals. After the pedestrian presses the button, the eagle will fly into the small tree from the place where he wanders. It will then wait for the cars to pile up before using the car line as a cover to sneak prey.
According to Dinets, the eagle has apparently learned to use pedestrian signals as a prompt to start heading to a crowded, defenseless bird house.
“This means the Eagle has understood the connection between sound and the final car queue length,” Dinets explains. The Eagle obviously also has a good community psychology map.
The eagle (or the same eagle that Dinets think) returns next year and uses the same strategy to hunt. Eventually, though, the family moved out and the signal stopped working, so Dinets never saw any super smart eagles hunting since.
Life is tough for birds in the city – they have to avoid windows, wear cars and deal with noise. But this study shows at least one way they adapt to urban life.
“I think my observations suggest that Cooper’s eagle is there at least in part to survive and thrive by being very clever,” Dinets wrote.
