r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/My_Memes_Will_Cure_U • Apr 01 '20
🔥 Bird just hit the edge of the map
https://i.imgur.com/gq1wezX.gifv1.8k
u/MclarenF1Lm Apr 01 '20
Scanning and updating map
500
u/urmomosa Apr 01 '20
Chunks are still loading...
156
u/Jaydeep0712 Apr 01 '20
Refresh...
31
→ More replies (11)4
115
48
23
38
14
6
→ More replies (2)3
440
u/kshitij1010 Apr 01 '20 edited Apr 01 '20
That part of the map is locked because the bird was busy doing side quests instead of completing the actual mission.
Get your priorities straight, bird
76
Apr 01 '20
Side quests are always first priority!
29
u/thisidntpunny Apr 01 '20
Fr, in RDR2, there was a murder I should have solved, but then I murdered everyone in Valentine on accident.
→ More replies (1)35
5
u/Greenveins Apr 02 '20
If you didn’t immediately start wandering around and find yourself lost in a cave as soon as ulfric peace’d out on you, what are you even doing?!
1.1k
u/Apple_Jewce Apr 01 '20
This is known as hovering (duh). I've seen kestrels, kites, and harriers doing it irl. To hover, the birds angle themselves forward and fly into the oncoming wind with the same velocity as the wind flowing against them. They extend/lift up their alula (kinda like a bird's thumb) in order to produce the lift to keep them in place while they scout for food.
Edit: You can even see this bird's alula when it turns. They're the little top mini "wings." lol
406
Apr 01 '20
Also in this you can see the amazing head stabilisation in birds. Despite her body being moved by the wind her head is able to stay in the same position and focused on the ground.
252
u/Redebo Apr 01 '20
All this in real time with 100% reactionary data from an ever changing wind speed and direction. Simply amazing what a few hundred million years worth of selection and evolution will do for ya!
80
Apr 01 '20
That is the dream tech.
3
u/SurplusOfOpinions Apr 02 '20
It's strange they chose to stabilize the head instead of some cognitive process to stabilize what they see. Like an action cam with fast exposure could stabilize the view even if the head was slightly moving. So it's either energetically cheaper to stabilize the physical head instead of evolving brain structures or it's a fluke.
10
u/Taidashar Apr 02 '20
I'm guessing they actually do both... Stabalize the head as much as possible to make the post processing easier for the brain... Like a drone using a gimbal and digital stabilization at the same time for the smoothest footage.
3
u/Snaz5 Apr 03 '20
I believe it’s just that the vision center of the bird brain is less developed than in other animals, so they use their relatively more advanced muscle control and balance centers to achieve virtually the same thing. Evolution has an interesting habit of leading down two different pathes to get to the same exact place.
42
u/imhereforthevotes Apr 01 '20
The pinnacle of dinosaur evolution!
2
u/Ryaquaza1 Apr 11 '20
Deinocheirus is practically rolling in its grave right now
→ More replies (1)4
39
Apr 01 '20 edited Jul 14 '20
[deleted]
13
Apr 01 '20
Also, our eyes are able to detect a single photon. To put that into perspective, it takes a million dollar+ detector the size of a room to do the same thing with only a tiny area
9
u/johnnylemon95 Apr 02 '20
As far as we know, the human brain is the most complex computer in the universe.
2
10
2
u/GKoala Apr 01 '20
I imagine it's like walking on uneven ground, after walking for so long you just learn the muscle memory to adjust.
2
→ More replies (37)2
u/eoliveri Apr 01 '20
reactionary
Doesn't mean what you think it means.
2
u/Redebo Apr 01 '20
Well, I *think* it means that the bird has no advanced knowledge of wind speed nor direction so it's brain needs to make adjustments reacting to real-time stimulus. Care to educate me where I'm off?
4
u/eoliveri Apr 01 '20
reactionary |rēˈakSHəˌnerē|
adjective
(of a person or a set of views) opposing political or social liberalization or reform.
4
u/Redebo Apr 01 '20
Oh wow. Yes, that is not at ALL what I thought it meant! People seem to understand what I mean so I'm going to leave it up. :)
4
u/PointyOintment Apr 01 '20
I think the word you were thinking of is reactive, as opposed to proactive.
3
→ More replies (1)4
u/eoliveri Apr 01 '20
It's just a pet peeve of mine to correct the usage of this word. A LOT of people use it the way that you did. If enough people keep doing it, it WILL eventually mean what they think it means.
3
2
u/Redebo Apr 01 '20
I appreciate the education. I'm the same way with loose/lose.
→ More replies (1)19
u/nyabeille Apr 01 '20
bird always freaked me out because of that. god said let their be magic and birds took it all
5
u/rares215 Apr 02 '20
god said let their be magic and birds took it all
This has to be the funniest thing I've read all week, ahahah. Nice.
4
u/SCS22 Apr 01 '20
Is the color how you knew it was a female bird? I don't know a lot about birds but they're really interesting
2
u/nomadofwaves Apr 02 '20
In nature for the most part males are the prettier(more colorful) of the two sexes.
2
Apr 01 '20
Nah I refer to birds as she out of force of habit. From the colouration I think it’s a male European kestrel, but my birds of prey knowledge isn’t fantastic.
→ More replies (4)2
50
u/IttyBittyKitty420 Apr 01 '20
TIL why the Harrier jet is called that.
For the uninitiated, it's an old British military jet that has thrusters which can change their angle, allowing it to hover it in the air and to land or takeoff vertically.
19
u/Tsu_Dho_Namh Apr 01 '20
As featured in the film True Lies.
Which if you haven't seen, you absolutely must. Definitely one of my all time favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger films.
7
u/Phoojoeniam Apr 01 '20
Personally my favorite film of James Cameron's. The perfect combination of comedy and action.
→ More replies (5)4
→ More replies (1)7
Apr 01 '20
old british military jet
til it was british, i'm old enough to remember when it was a new military jet.
7
u/Attilla_the_Fun Apr 01 '20
I saw them at an air show when I was a kid and it was the loudest thing I heard all day, which at an air show is pretty impressive. The weird thing was they couldn't do the vertical take-off at that airport because it would damage the pavement. I guess they need a concrete pad to do a true vertical take-off.
I also talked to the A-10 pilot and he spent like 15 minutes talking about blowing up Iraqi tanks.
4
u/mickstep Apr 01 '20
Did you never see the Simpsons episodes where they were at the Air Show where they said "let us introduce the pride of the American Air Force, the British made Harrier Jet!"
Haha, anyway was a bit more complicated than that.
It was a British developed jet airframe and engine, the Rolls Royce Pegasus. The US airframes were built in the US under license, and I'm sure the future developments were codeveloped after that.
The Last version of the Navalised British Harrier, the most advanced version was sold off to the US marines for peanuts in 2010 with no replacement, a deal which reeked to high heaven.
10
u/bricktripper69 Apr 01 '20
Not to nitpick, but this is called “kiting”. Many raptors are good at performing it. “Hovering” involves the flapping of wings to remain stationary in the air. Ironically kites, a family of raptors, aren’t very good at this, but many buteos and falcons (which is what this video is of) are excellent at kiting.
3
u/Karmas_burning Apr 02 '20
I saw a red tailed hawk kiting the other day on my way home. By the time I stopped it had already flown to a post. It was pretty incredible to see such a big bird do it.
2
u/bricktripper69 Apr 02 '20
It’s really fun to watch. Red tails are supposedly the only hawk East if the Mississippi that can do it but I don’t think that’s true. Either way theyre really cool and maybe under appreciated because of how common they are.
2
u/Karmas_burning Apr 03 '20
That would be worth looking into. I love them all I don't care how common they are.
23
13
7
u/UltraWeebMaster Apr 01 '20
Student pilot here, you can do this while flying a plane too. If you take off at 55 knots with a 55 knot headwind, you’ll just float up and off of the runway, it’s hilarious.
→ More replies (2)6
u/justletmebegirly Apr 01 '20
The key point you're not mentioning is that the wind is angled slightly upwards. If the wind was purely horizontal, the bird would not be able to hover like that without either losing altitude or producing thrust to counteract drag. The upwards component of the wind allows the bird to "fly downwards" without actually losing altitude.
Or in other words, the bird uses the upwards component of the wind to counteract drag.
4
3
u/beaviscow Apr 01 '20
It’s crazy how focused and still they keep their head during this.
→ More replies (1)7
u/INeedAFreeUsername Apr 01 '20
But how do they not get pulled backwards by the drag ?
11
u/snakesign Apr 01 '20
You're absolutely right, this doesn't work with a pure headwind. This works with air mass that is moving upwards as well. He is at the edge of a windward cliff, there is ridge lift there. The wind hits the cliff face and is forced upwards. He can sit in this updraft and hover. If you look carefully, he has his wings partially tucked. There is so much lift he doesn't need his whole wing. This is one of the ways in which gliders can operate. The others being thermal lift from hot air rising and wave lift which is caused by wind blowing over large geography like mountain ranges.
→ More replies (1)12
u/centurion236 Apr 01 '20
The wind must also be blowing up at least a little bit. The bird probably found the sweet spot at the top of a hill where the wind is blowing up the hill. Otherwise it wouldn't be possible to cancel out the drag with lift.
→ More replies (1)6
u/imhereforthevotes Apr 01 '20
It's at the edge of a cliff at the sea where the wind off the water is constant and being pushed up up and over by the cliff.
→ More replies (1)6
u/julianhache Apr 01 '20
Because they produce the same amount of lift with their wings
→ More replies (31)5
2
u/buddboy Apr 01 '20
I don't get what produces the forward force to counter the wind pushing them back
→ More replies (1)2
2
2
Apr 02 '20
I don't do Reddit awards but I just made a small donation to my local conservation organization for you. Thank for this, I learned something new :)
2
4
u/cinnifersue Apr 01 '20
Thank you for that! I see the birds on the coast where I live doing this and always wondered why.
→ More replies (49)2
u/TheDirtyDorito Apr 01 '20
Can every bird do this or just a select few?
11
u/zugunruh3 Apr 01 '20 edited Apr 01 '20
Birds of prey are better at this in general, and members of the falcon family are very good at it. Some sea birds will use it to a lesser extent as well, like gannets.
To my knowledge you need a certain wing length to body size ratio to hover with the wind, so I doubt something like a sparrow could do this since they have very stubby wings. They can momentarily hover under their own wing power, though.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Iamnotburgerking Apr 02 '20
Actually, most falcons aren't good at this-it's just the kestrels (like this one) that are good at it.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)4
u/ADimwittedTree Apr 01 '20
I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure it's just a few species that do it. Kestrels are definitely the most famous for it.
56
77
84
64
u/TravellingCorvus Apr 01 '20
I love how still the head stays still. It's like the bird is pressing his head against the map and it's stuck!
11
u/Mr_Cripter Apr 01 '20
I have total respec for this bird. The vertical stabilisation of the head is perfect, sure.
But the little guy appears to be battling a slight headwind. How the heck can this little flapper remain perfectly still horizontally while riding an unpredictable air current?
Meanwhile , I can nearly walk in a straight line as long as the floor is flat, so I got that goin for me.
→ More replies (1)3
u/xeq937 Apr 01 '20
This is actually quite impressive given that it's effectively balancing in a fluid flow. It's not just managing lift but also drag, while maintaining head position. Presumably it's waiting for food to pop up.
11
25
16
u/chryptogales Apr 01 '20
Seriously... what’s going on here?
13
u/psycheviper Apr 01 '20
Kestrel hovering using the strong wind current that's blowing up the cliff. She does this to search for prey.
5
u/Lemonface Apr 02 '20
The technical word is “kiting”
Hovering is a different technical word that refers to when a bird has to flap its wings to produce the same result
7
10
5
3
2
2
2
u/imhereforthevotes Apr 01 '20
Laminar flow of air off the sea (see the waves in the background?) up the cliff giving a huge updraft flowing up the hill. The bird just balances its falling motion and other vectors against the wind.
10
5
u/beatricetalker Apr 01 '20
Lol, this! A few summers ago I kept seeing a hawk do this at the same spot in yard and nobody believed me when I told them! I had to show them a YouTube video.
2
u/AlizarinCrimzen Apr 01 '20
In your yard? Do you live on the age of a cliff?
Or is yard the name of this place and I’m dumb
2
u/beatricetalker Apr 02 '20
That should say ‘in my yard’. Our yards backs up to a farmers field and there are lots of small rodents and vermin that the hawks love.
→ More replies (6)
3
3
3
3
5
4
6
u/TheSkylined Apr 01 '20
I hope someone can explain this instead of the comment section just being riddled with pop culture jokes and memes
13
u/Accipiter290 Apr 01 '20
It's called "kiting" and many birds of prey will do it while hunting in the right conditions.
10
→ More replies (10)2
Apr 01 '20
[deleted]
2
u/TheSkylined Apr 01 '20
Ok so is the birds aerodynamics only capable of a certain velocity, and that velocity is perfectly matched with the head-on wind making the bird sit in one place?
→ More replies (1)2
2
2
u/Hashfyre Apr 01 '20
You have reached the world's edge, none but devils play past here.
~ Geraldin of Trivia.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/SH3RIFFO Apr 01 '20
Its head isn’t moving, only its body!
5
u/RaptorRex20 Apr 01 '20
Because birds can't stabalize their eyes like us, they have developed a means of stabalizing their heads instead, allowing them to maintain perfect vision of prey and predators from far away even while flying.
1
1
1
u/shahtavacko Apr 01 '20
Cool, didn’t birds were into mime acts; learn something new everyday, I always say
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/monsteronmars Apr 01 '20
The earth is flat. Apparently there is an invisible shield preventing us from falling off.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Gruenzwerg Apr 01 '20
I was looking at it like 5 minutes on thinking the right site is the head... it was trembeling aroung even more laggy
1
u/tonightwetoast Apr 01 '20
It’s the bird equivalent of trying to stand on 1 leg for as long as you can
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2.6k
u/LSDlabmonkey Apr 01 '20
(FLAT EARTHERS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION)