You're wrong, it is true what I had written. Yes, they can mimick and copy but they can tell the knowledge to birds who are far away and don't see them, therefore this isn't and can't be mimick or copy. The flocks' reactions seem faster than the speed of thought becuase the thoughts can be exactly simulataneous because their telepathic communication is like this. Not only for the flying together, but other things also.
Actually I have to side with Cainntear on this. The point is that the birds have much faster reaction times than we have so a whole flock of birds can propagate the movement of one bird to its neighbours and its neighbour's neighbour in a split second , and therefore it looks like they all take a certain decision simultaneously. I recently saw a video on a documentary channel where the talk wasn't about birds, but about fish, and when the movements of the fish were photographed with a highspeed camera you could actually see how one fish changed its direction a fraction of a second later than its neighbour. And fish are not nearly as bright as birds. But brightness ... that's the other side of the discussion, and here I side with Caniche the Royal Apricot. Some birds, and here we are primarily speaking about crows and ravens, are surprisingly smart considering how small their brains are. It has been demonstrated in experiments that they can score as high as monkeys on tests that for instance include pulling seemingly irrelevant threads to get rewards - and the solutions to such problems isn't not something they have learnt in nature or developed as instincts (unlike the smartness involved in trying to delude other birds from noticing where goodies are stored and things like that - that could be blamed on instinct). The (only) other kind of birds that might be suspected of some kind of intelligence is the parrot family - not because of their mimicking of voices (although it is interesting that this isn't a habit they have in natural setting - which explains why 'speaking' jacos etc. generally are those that are raised alone), but because they can learn signs for numbers and things like that. And maybe also because keas look they have fun even as adults, although that is strictly circumstancial evidence. Btw: maybe we should have had a separate thread about birds - where did the universe go?
I think it would be better to open a new thread to discuss biology as another field of science. Also biology is very interesting! Fasulye
I heard about the flocking on TV, so I don't have any immediate sources, but here's something I've just googled up...
My knowledeg about the birds is mostly because of my personal experience and friendship with them. But a link, for example, is here http://www.sheldrake.org/research/animal-powers/the-nkisi-project
If the parrot's owner hasn't applied to the James Randi Educational Foundation to be assessed for the $1 million dollar prize for demonstrating genuine paranormal powers, then I don't believe it.
The owner clearly wants to prove that the parrot's psychic, and there's nowhere that could be more trusted as proof it is....
Not psychic, he can use telepathy, it's different. Anyway, you mean the humans' proof, but the parrot is a bird. The birds don't communicate all their things with the humans. This is the problem: the humans test it based on themself and their limited senses and perceptions. Iversen, yes I agree that a birds' thread would be nice. this is the universe one. poor universe haha.
Telepathy is a psychic power, therefore a telepathic bird is psychic. "Boat" and "yacht" made be different things, but a yacht is still a boat.
No, because psychic is when you can see the future, practice multilocation, or apportation. Telepathy is absolutley normal for the birds.
Maybe paranormal mental powers for the humans, althouhg it's often done (in certain forms), but for the birds it's not paranormal, but every day. For example, to fly would be extremely paranormal for the humans (i mean without a plane or other thing) but for the birds it's normal.
Here's a definition from wikipedia: Paranormal is a general term (coined c. 1915–1920) that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure. Paranormal phenomena are distinct from certain hypothetical entities, such as dark matter and dark energy, only insofar as paranormal phenomena are inconsistent with the world as already understood throughempirical observation coupled with scientific methodology. Therefore, blackbirds and crows cannot be paranormal, because everyone knows they are made up of billions and billions of tiny black holes. Just kidding, of course, but it almost ties in with the origin of the universe topic.
Many phenomena are outside of science's current ability to explain or measure, therefoe many things would be considered paranormal but in the reality they are not paranormal but normal. I don't know why it's a difference between the hypothetical ones and those considered as paranormal, how can they decide in which category? Stephen Hawkings has said that his hypotheses were incorrect therefore paranormal or inexistanet I suppose. LOL But the blackbirds' beaks are orange. The crows are completely black.
