Pigeons alert their flockmates to impending danger not through vocalization, but by making a whistling sound with their wings as they take off in response to a threat, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers say other birds may also have co-opted the basic mechanical sounds of flight for communication purposes.
Biologists were curious about how all the pigeons in a huge flock knew to launch themselves into the air at the same moment. Because the birds don’t use vocal calls to alert their peers, scientists hypothesized they convey the message using their wings. Researchers first recorded the sounds made by crested pigeons flying happily around a feeder, then sent in a decoy of a hawk, and recorded their flight from the faux predator. When the researchers later played the sound back for a flock of birds, they didn’t so much as twitch at the normal recording. But the rapid clap-clap-clap of the alarmed bird sent them fleeing. Similarly, when the volume or speed of the recording was manipulated, birds only reacted to emergency wing whistles [Discovery News]. Although it’s not yet known exactly how the birds make these sounds, the study’s results could do more than increase our understanding of bird communication. They could also help repel the pesky birds from places where they are annoying or even harmful, like public parks and airports.
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Image: flickr / Lip Kee
September 5th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Sight doesn’t have anything to do with the response?
September 6th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I’m sure the site of the predator is the trigger to fly in that specific fashion. So in that way site does, it may be that the other pigeons can visually detect the difference of their fellows flight too.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
the researchers showed it was the sound by playing a recording and then observing that the birds fled, regardless of the visual contact with a predator. thats how they know it is the sound of their flockmates wings, not just the visual clue