Their vison spectrum generally is so much better than ours, could it be possible they can see certain chemical residues and learn to avoid them? A recent study of mine on organic food choices suggests as much.
2007-03-23 05:47:10 · 4 answers · asked by victoria_zoologist 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
It would be nice to think so however, .... my mum used to have a pair of blutits nest in her wooden letterbox (it`s on a pole in her front garden) every year. One year she noticed the hen acting a bit strange and she couldn`t recall seeing the cockbird. A couple of days later she hadn`t seen either, so she opened the back door on the letterbox and what she saw broke her heart. There were 10 almost fledgelings plus the hen and they were all dead. She contacted the RSPB and they said the most likely cause was because of the parent birds feeding on something covered in pesticide.
2007-03-23 06:00:24 · answer #1 · answered by *~STEVIE~* *~B~* 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmm.. that will be very interesting if it's true. But as you did point out, birds do have better coverage of the vision spectrum and are more sensitive, so they may be able to see the colour produced by the reaction of certain compund in plants with the chemicals in the pesticide, that we wouldn't be able to tell normally with our naked eye. I'm sure all the food scientist will be very keen to research about this to see if it's true. However, if this is indeed true, be sure to watch out for the bird version of the K-9 in the future :)
2007-03-23 05:54:50 · answer #2 · answered by ProfPilot 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could be onto something. Birds do see ultra violet spectrum's that we can not. That's how they find each other in huge colonies..
2007-03-25 10:57:37 · answer #3 · answered by Moon Man 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Isn't it as likely they smell the residue ?
2007-03-23 05:52:32 · answer #4 · answered by chillipope 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋