Roosting Birds in Blue
by Janette Boyd
Title
Roosting Birds in Blue
Artist
Janette Boyd
Medium
Photograph - Photo/texture/digital
Description
Featured by FAA Group, "Sunsets Sunrises Night and Moon Shots"
So where do birds sleep? Lots of places. When birds settle down to sleep, it's called roosting, and the main things they are looking for are safety and warmth. Songbirds have to keep off the ground to avoid cats and things, and out of the open to avoid owls. Dense brush or foliage does fine. Bigger birds have more options and can sleep on the water, on a branch, or even just right on the ground.
Few roosts are completely safe, though, so some birds have developed the ability to literally sleep with one eye open. The eyes of most birds (unlike in humans) send information to only one side of the brain. Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep allows birds to slide one hemisphere of their brain into a deep sleep while leaving the other hemisphere awake and alert. Birds can turn USWS on and off depending on how safe their roost is: For example, when a large flock of ducks is roosting on an open lake, the birds in the safety of the center of the flock may shut down completely, while the more vulnerable birds at the edge of the flock may enter USWS to stay alert. What's more, scientists suspect that some birds use USWS to sleep while in flight. For more info, go here:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/01/23/where_do_birds_sleep_roosting_in_nests_water_flocks_cavities.html
Uploaded
February 28th, 2016
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