MinuteEarth Explains: Birds

[@yuvalne]

The birds at 12:30 are surprisingly chill about being held

[@advaithpillai]

Here's a question I've always had. How do birds that stay year round in scandinavian countries, Russia, Canada, adjust to the drastic shift in daylight hours from almost none in winter, to almost the entire day in summer???

[@MinuteEarth]

Obviously, the challenge is in the winter. Some birds can survive in the cold and dark so long as their food stays consistent - For example, some migratory birds (like hummingbirds and others) will skip migrating in cases where humans maintain feeders. Here's some more info about birds that winter in the North: www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-do-birds-survive-the-winter/#

[@1224chrisng]

@@MinuteEarth one example of this is actually the Canada Goose. Historically, they'd migrate to follow their natural range, but these days, golf courses and parks are the same across the world

[@matthew8505]

They live in the lakes

[@pierrecurie]

@@matthew8505 *hibernate at the bottom of lakes

[@Ikajo]

At least in Sweden, there has been a tradition for a long time to leave food for the year round birds during the winter. Back in the day it was bundles of wheat from the harvest. Nowadays, it is common to use bird feeders. People also put up special balls of bird feed in the trees. Why? Because people like seeing them. The robin in particular is heavily associated with winter and Christmas. Growing up, I actually got to see woodpeckers because of this.

[@Arsenic71]

Birds are my favourite dinosaurs. They are beautiful, smart, entertaining, social, cute and some sing quite wonderful songs.

[@QUEfrang]

i ima

[@Sun-God2]

Birds are the most Beautiful Creatures of the Reptiles' Clade

[@Avianeyes]

Best archosaurs

[@sammyssandwich]

avian dinosaurs

[@akpsyche1299]

As an Alaskan, it’s super cool to see Alaskan birds and communities represented in a video from one of my favorite science education channels. Keep up the good work!

[@TOMINTOM-si8hd]

Alaska is like Ireland

[@phoebe_likes_everything3444]

Minute earth, I’ve watched your videos for years and I’m so happy and proud for how much your channel has grown.

[@arzt_glucke_dr_chickend]

Hello other chicken

[@phoebe_likes_everything3444]

Hello

[@ascra1693]

Well done kids

[@heya4405]

???

[@HomieNukeMarkRealNoFake]

So many likes with only 2 replies,so sad

[@reaxoxome]

*pat pat*

[@Corgimations]

😭

[@a_crab_perhaps]

Well done indeed

[@Kryonyde]

It was only when I learned about the avian circular respiratory system and pneumatized skeleton that I realized how remarkably different they are from mammals.

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

Those are also reason why dinosaurs could grow so big.

[@ianism3]

well... that's because they aren't closely related to mammals at all. they literally are reptiles with feathers. like, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards and snakes. we just think of them as being different because they look and behave suuuuper differently from other reptiles... and so we thought they were their own thing until relatively recently. nowadays, if scientists are talking about what most people consider to be "reptiles", they will say "non-avian reptiles".

[@lordgarion514]

@@ianism3 Birds are literally NOT reptiles, at all. They are in fact dinosaurs that never went extinct. And *non-avian reptiles* isn't even a thing. It's *non-avian dinosaurs*

[@Sun-God2]

​@@lordgarion514birds are Dinosaurs and Dinosaurs are Archosaurs, and Archosaurs ARE Reptiles. So, Birds are Reptiles

[@theotheseaeagle]

@@lordgarion514 birds technically speaking are reptiles. If squamates and archosaurs (crocodiles as well as birds) are to be considered “reptiles” birds must also be considered “reptiles”. But then again there isn’t really such thing as a a “reptile”

[@karrotsrkool]

I worked on a bird tracker a bit over 5 years ago and I can't believe we didn't know about tracking position through the light sensor. The gps was half the board and took nearly all the power. We even had the light data and lots more data points to improve accuracy as position was just 1 thing it tracked. tldr students know more about bird tracking than pros in did 5 years ago XD

[@schoologylibrarybot4311]

Great video, I always love seeing you guys in my notification with your informational and entertaining! Kepp it up guys you're the best

[@jer103]

2 things came up after watching this video: 1. When birds migrate, what is the mortality rate? Like ships traveling across to the other side of the planet, not all make it to their destination. Birds have to navigate weather, man-made obstacles like planes/hunters, and I can't imagine the kind of stress physically a migration takes on a birds body. I just wonder how many don't finish the journey, and why. 2. I see birds darting in front of my car, even at 70 miles per hour. I would have liked to know more about their brains, reflexes, physiology, and reaction times. I wonder this because birds aren't like small animals or insects, that die to vehicles more often. Bird's visual and reactive reflexes far surpass any drone A.I. or technology to keep them alive, and easily avoid things.

[@maia3940]

Hiiii soon-to-be ornithologist here (one more semester woo!) The mortality rate of birds during migration can be pretty high depending on the species and ESPECIALLY age of the bird. The very young/inexperienced and the old/weaker birds are more at risk, and sometimes if they aren’t strong enough they don’t migrate at all (in some species at least). Not migrating also can decrease survival probability but mostly it has an impact on breeding success (no migrating=no nesting=lower evolutionary fitness=bad for a species/bloodline). Once a young bird is better at finding food and finding a safe migration route it’s survivability drastically increases. Other factors like storms or plane strikes etc affect this, but those are less consistent factors. For your second question, I don’t know a whole lot about this but in general bird strikes are very common (even by cars) people just don’t notice a lot of the time because they don’t make much of a literal impact. However, there are less strikes than there could be because, as far as my understanding of it goes, birds actually perceive time at a different rate than us! The world seems to move a lot slower around them than it does for us (same for dogs, but curiously it’s the reverse for cats!) Hope I helped! :)

[@lordgarion514]

@@maia3940 It's the bird brain and eyes. Birds, at least smaller insect eating birds in England, have been tested. Human eyes/brains are completely fooled by a movie with 24 frames per second (not that we would see 23), whereas the birds can see well over 100 frames per second, I forget the exact number.

[@theotheseaeagle]

@@maia3940 I frequently see small songbirds dead on roads, as well as ducks and pheasants. I actually saw a mallard hen get ran over by a lorry on the way to school and it was flapping around for awhile, traumatic stuff Pheasants usually get hit by cars because they’re raised in captivity and then released for shooting so they don’t know how to avoid cars

[@holemajora598]

I have to say that I think it’s fantastic that you’ve had the idea to not only seek knowledge but drive to share that knowledge. I hope you all keep the love of knowledge and drive to make better the world you live in.

[@ventusleone]

Those kids must have worked hard! This was a great video! Thank you!

[@crayonzii]

Amazing and very informative video! I’m 19 and passionate about nature, but even I learned new stuff today!

[@bird_obsession]

As someone who absolutely adores birds and everything avian, this video was really fun to watch. Thanks!

[@laletemanolete]

Just to clarify, Pidgeoto is not real bird.

[@DimSum9685]

awwww..... ::puts pokeball away::

[@bird_obsession]

Unfortunately :p

[@FwogrealMSM]

@@DimSum9685 gabite go!

[@PaintedDog]

All "birds" aren't real

[@TheDumbTwin]

Maybe idk

[@samwill7259]

There is nothing as inspiring as the lust for knowledge and wisdom that comes from the minds of children. They just want to know, and they ask the questions that so many of us are so used to that we forget to actually learn the answers for real. Ask questions about your world the way a child would, and you'll learn something new every day

[@SoulDelSol]

Curiosity and desire for knowledge has nothing to do with children. I think that's odd for an adult to not continually want to learn more about world around us

[@Blackadder75]

@@SoulDelSol many adults get stuck in struggle for daily life, and don't have the energy anymore to be curious. You need two conditions: A) a good work-life balance and B) no worries about the necessities of life

[@SoulDelSol]

@@Blackadder75 i understand what you're saying. But i think about universe, time, space, relativity, evolution, microbes, subatomic particles, sensation, biology, consciousness, etc when I'm in shower before work, during my commute to work, and on lunch break. Assuming people shower and eat lunch they have time to be curious. It doesn't take more than a few minutes here and there whilst doing something else that needs to be done. For example if you're mowing your lawn you are free to think, if you're cleaning your home, if you're waiting in line at market, etc. None of that is someone who isn't also focused on necessities of life nor does it require balance (although that would be ideal). It's not self actualizing (top of hierarchy of needs) but rather just 2 minutes of quiet reflection. Everyone has 2 minutes. In fact I'm sure many of these people are spending a lot more than that drinking alcohol, on fb, or watching reality tv etc

[@aezravito9717]

This is by far the most realistic animation. The plane part is so realistic.

[@snowyforest6058]

2:35 I didn't know they have 2 sacks! Great vid MinuteEarth and great job to those kids.

[@jacksim5759]

6:21 that "thanks to skills.." almost activated my ad-skipping reflexes lmao. anyways fun video, minute earth

[@GriffWild]

That was excellent. The part about how the light detector, clock, and tracker to map routes and speed could be its own video.

[@mosab643]

I wonder how we would have perceived distance if we could fly and travel like these birds.

[@potapotapotapotapotapota]

this gives me a lot of empathy for birds

[@XViGames0]

Because of the soft feathers, I associate birds with mammals in my head a lot. It's crazy to think that they're most closely related to crocodiles.

[@thomaspc0]

Wow, I really enjoyed the first video about bird anatomy. I didn't know most of that.

[@rudraprasad8934]

That was the most amazing video that minute earth ever made. Loved it

[@nicksamek12]

Smart kids! Thanks for working with them to make this.

[@benjiusofficial]

woah woah woah You assume that you can tell me all I want to know about birds, especially without speaking bird? What a grand and intoxicating innocence.

[@wangshiyao]

11:13 How did pidgeotto end up in South America?

[@sedrah11]

5:20 the cats: hey I got a question for you I sleep the opposite way

[@marloelefant7500]

I didn't knew that Pidgeotto is an Alaskan bird.6:40

[@bir_dilim_bilim3510]

Thank you so much for this wonderful video. I have been using it as a resource in my classes!

[@realLeCHL]

4:25 Is that supposed to be a yoyleberry from BFDI?

[@Purafus_the_world_ender]

As a student bug thanks to you all:) it was collest biology lesson i have had in my life

[@hammerhand9449]

Bird Fact! There's a bird that is native just to the Sierra Nevada called the mountain chickadee or Poeceli Gambeli and its amazing because its song sounds just like cheese burger

[@Dragrath1]

Are you sure its *exclusive* to there? Looking at the listed year round range they appear to have colonized a number of of the mountain systems through western North America well beyond the Sierra Nevada microplate. They are definitely amazing birds but don't count those dees short. :)

[@ericgraham5201]

I had mountain chickadees at the grand canyon.

[@edwardsimpson119]

1:37 Behold, a man! 6:03 That sounds pretty Mag-Neato! 7:01 And a mysterious tendency to suddenly appear every time you are near...

[@santoast24]

My FAVORITE part about this episode is how it bumbles and rambles around and away Like, oh, it makes sense that birds need lots of air to fly, how does that woooooork??? Oh your gonnna tell me? Lets goooooooooooo OH AND your gonna talk about how the heart works in a bird???? I wasnt thinking about that, but I SURE AM NOW and OH OH OH Love it, cant wait till y'all do this for..... every topic.... ever

[@jaythecollector4]

The pidgeotto made this even better

[@Erica-nf2tj]

9:41 Why are Caitlin and Vi catching birds

[@wiebimon9579]

I absolutely loved this video. Thank you so much.

[@fernandon3926]

thank you so much, MinuteEarth.

[@jujuoof174]

Bird are sooo cute

[@randomperson8663]

Awesome!!! Thanks for amazing facts kids!! 👏👏👏👏👍👍👍❤️❤️

[@davialmeida4442]

0:42 That little man has a Naruto jacket. I respect him

[@rogerszmodis]

A bunch of Canada geese hang out in my yard during their migrations and for the last few years there’s one that’s really curious and comes up on the deck when I’m out there and will even take food out of my hand. I don’t know how it hasn’t learned that going up to random humans is an extremely bad idea. I wouldn’t hurt them but people are pretty uncool. I don’t feed it regularly when they are here but it’s been up with me a couple times this spring and fall when I was doing fish on the bbq and I gave it a little piece each time. It had already been coming onto the deck for a couple years by then so I don’t think it will become dependant.

[@boy638]

I hope this video takes off.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

I see what you did there.

[@PTAdnan]

Niiiceee these kids are so creative, innovative, and excellent ❤️❤️

[@EmanuelsWorkbench]

Great job! I loved the video!

[@Wizard_Pepsi]

Imagine a recording of the Great Snipe's migration from the 1st person perspective.

[@tptacos]

Carl, I found the snipe! 10:23

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

Best video to date. Thank you!

[@Shxealyn]

❤️ I love the videos you guys make ❤️

[@KnowArt]

I had a pretty extraordinary school, but making videos with MinuteEarth?! pfff, lucky kids!

[@MySerpentine]

LOL 'When the car got stuck in the snow' Yup, that's the North for ya.

[@enrique.ortizvidal]

Nice initiative. Thanks for sharing

[@myozeka]

The birds are so cutely drawn 🥰🥰🥰

[@donflymoor2767]

Ah interesting fact is that birds don't have hollow bones, in fact they have denser bones then other small animals such as mice. They need strong bones to deal with all the forces of flight, and a broken wing means almost certain death.

[@atheistpower5659]

I learned every thing I know about bird Law from the great Charlie Reynolds of Philadelphia from the care of their teeth to fighting like the crow .

[@madnessarcade7447]

Would love a whole video about Pokémon and their real life counterparts

[@tylerdurdin8069]

I'm surprised, you talked about Snipes but you didn't talk about snipe hunting.

[@pagox]

These drawings are absolutely hilarious! :D

[@tomcarlosimborio7528]

11:19 is that Pidgeotto in South America? 😁

[@snowmoth865]

I am getting nostalgia i haven't watched minute earth of a while now

[@osmia]

Thanks students of Tebughna School :)

[@darthparallax5207]

I'm happy the actual video is serious and helpful but still sad the comments section are not more memes about birds about birds not being real

[@zaqw1111]

0:41 That Naruto/Sasuke hoodie goes hard

[@PiercePlikett]

For the Thumbnail: "Behold Plato's man!" (Diogenes, The Cynic) LOL

[@artemis6985]

I never experienced snow before, but what do insects do when winter comes? Do they also migrate?

[@thehiddenninja3428]

I find it hard to believe that the idea that birds fly away to somewhere warmer during winter was that hard to believe

[@DarkStar-nw8ee]

This video was originally called something like "Everything we know about birds", and personally I think the new title fits in line with all the other explanation videos you guys have made, so why not just name it this in the first place?

[@somsomi7215]

I NOTICED PIDGEOTTO AT 11:17 !! idk why im so proud i could be wrong xD

[@RobotShield]

A question that’s been puzzling me, if birds bones are hollow how much space is left for bone marrow?

[@fenrirgg]

I see you were tracking birds in Kanto.

[@WAMTAT]

Awesome. So inspiring

[@HardCounter]

Why did the voiceover change?

[@pickleyeet8844]

If you enjoyed this I highly recommend the book A World on the Wing

[@kafuuchino3236]

Excellent video, but the title is a lie - I now want to know even more about birds!

[@NullNoxproduction]

Great job, and congratulations 🎊

[@T.A.J_group]

can you please tell me how do you edit your videos

[@Corruptedhope]

*the things that minuteearth do for our planet*

[@lavenderflowersfall280]

Sorcerers gather with their familiars (bird creatures) in Alaska where the two hemispheres touch to form a magic bond to save our worlds.

[@steernaught]

7:30 Oh so that’s why they’re called barnacle geese, interesting!

[@XenoTechnian]

Alaska is my home state!

[@secretunknown2782]

Alaska is the exile state

[@teainnit27]

Man, those kids wrote a banger of an episode.

[@gabekesler3590]

Second video was nearly a word for copy of one of your previous videos not sure about the other two I’m gonna go investigate that

[@androkguz]

Here is an idea: 1- Find and capture a talking Meowth 2- Find and capture a Pidgey or Pidgeotto 3- Have the Meawth ask the Pidgey/Pidgeotto how their species migrate and have the Meawth tell you I mean I don't really get why we are paying this scientists when their work is so trivial

[@iamgreatalwaysgreat8209]

Smh, talking Meowth working for a organized criminal association a myth.

[@EClaire.1073]

Is no one talking about how the scientists at 10:00 are clearly Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane

[@eeeee11235]

BRUH is no one going to point out at 0:03 that they are in beluga, Alaska Beluga be like: this is my domain

[@eeeee11235]

@@Cheezburger5529 so did they name it beluga because they hunt and consume them or they thought the beluga whale was a good name

[@fanstargateiloveuniverse]

Can you do a video about biological Systematics? What is it looked like twohundred years ago and now, when we have dna? were there any changes in the table with the new evidences? I don't know, maybe a bird in some group is now belong to a totally different group or something....

[@enviousscarab2762]

0:26 is that pdx

[@demolisherinfinite8606]

I heard somewhere that birds also use their bones to breathe, because they are hollow and thus can hold additional air like the air sacs. Is this true?

[@Dragrath1]

Yes it is! To be more precise in evolutionary terms birds and their extinct relatives evolved hollow bones by incorporating their systems of air sacs into their bones. This trait evolved at least 3 times independently within the dinosaurs and other dinosaur line archosaurs (i.e. the pterosaurs) In particular hollow bones evolved within pterosaurs sauropods and theropods respectively all from the same base one way respiratory system that serves as the defining characteristic of archosaurs. In the case of sauropods their fossils preserve evidence for some truly extensive systems of air sacs throughout their bodies and these were likely one of the critical reasons they were able to bypass the normal tetrapod size limit that constrains mammals and ornithischian dinosaurs. In otherwords dinosaurs could get huge in part because their bones were hollow and also because their ancestors had developed a unique lung valve morphology which causes convective air turbulence to create a unidirectional air flow which thanks to diffusion within the inflowing and outflowing air is much more effectively able to extract oxygen and expel carbon dioxide than the mammalian tidal pool lung can while also using less energy in the process. And yes Crocodilians the other extant group of archosaurs also have a 1 way respiratory system though they don't have the same kind of air sac systems birds have and dinosaur line archosaurs fossils show attachment and entry points for. In fact this trait appears to predate archosauria as other diapsid reptiles such as squamates(lizards and snakes) and turtles also share the monodirectional lungs putting this as a fairly early evolutionary adaptation. journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiol.00056.2014 And for an earlier but more publicly readable blog article svpow.com/2013/12/11/unidirectional-airflow-in-the-lungs-of-birds-crocs-and-now-monitor-lizards/ (This was published before work also showed monodirectional breathing in other diapsid reptiles) What is fascinating about the evolution of unidirectional breathing is that it helps explain the mystery of why mammals weren't able to compete for large body sizes is now thought to primarily be due to the difference in complex lung structure between synapsids and sauropsids. While in an oxygen rich environment they are both effective enough solutions during the late/end Permian extinction and subsequent Triassic where oxygen levels dropped this small relative inefficiency in oxygen intake and higher metabolic cost of needing separate inhalation and exhalation is likely what prevented mammals from competing for large body niches during the Mesozoic. Oxygen levels would rise and restabilize during the Jurassic after the break up of Pangaea but by then the mid sized and large bodied niches had already been thoroughly occupied. Still even now though the advantages of the diapsid lung are not negligible over mammals. Mammals probably make up most of the difference with our ability to chew which required reduction and loss of jaw bones with the added bonus that additional lost jaw bones could get repurposed for hearing.

[@raptorzilla0710]

Half-true. While bird bones are hollow (and filled with air), it’s not for breathing. Instead it’s more lot to make the bird less heavy and easier to take off.

[@demolisherinfinite8606]

@@raptorzilla0710 Thanks for the info! Fascinating nonetheless

[@CaptainObvious0000]

your description of how birds fly may be either not very accurate or at least not the only explanation. the form of the wing plays the following role in a stream of air: it divides the airstream in 2 parts, the upper and lower part. the upper flow is faster, the lower one is slower. this is due to their different path curvatures. have you ever observed how you can "catch" air in a fast-moving stream of water in a hose? maybe you have done that in chemistry/physics class to create suction. the same way the faster upper stream compared to the slower lower stream creates a pressure difference, the wing (and bird) is being pulled upwards by the fast(er) moving air above it.

[@SgtSupaman]

I was with you until the end there. You are always pushed by higher pressure to lower pressure. Air doesn't pull. MinuteEarth is always very succinct in their descriptions on how things work so they can keep their videos short, so if you're going to be pedantic about their explanations, at least get it right.

[@CaptainObvious0000]

@@SgtSupaman I give you this point, I wanted to make it more analogous to the the water jet pump I described that creates a "suction effect". btw for anyone who wants to read up on the description I gave in my first comment, it's called bernoulli's principle. next time you want to state that you suck a drink through a straw, I hope you instead say that you enable the atmospheric pressure to push the drink into you :D . just for the sake of consistency.

[@SgtSupaman]

@@CaptainObvious0000 , that is precisely how I like my straws, heh. I'm glad we're on the same page.

[@a2e5]

Given our lack of a grand unified theory of aerodynamic lift, it makes sense to keep it vague. Bernoulli's sounds great until you ask about the above-wingtip low pressure zone and the fact that air isn't synchronized horizontally; it's incomplete. Scientific American had an article "No One Can Explain Why Planes Stay in the Air" from 2020; that's how alive the debate is.

[@MinecraftPanda8]

wow what an amazing video!

[@ZorgoXorgon]

Pidgeotto comes from South America? I always knew Pokemon were real!

[@furaosentu]

was looking for that comment. thought the same thing exactly (even though I didn't remember the pokemon's name)

[@Anon21486]

University of Massachusetts Amherst... yea, as someone from the Boston area, that sounds really weird and caught me off guard. We say UMass Amherst.

[@downey2294]

i thought the lift was created by the change in air pressure bellow and above the wing. not due to the wing pushing the air downwards.

[@SoulDelSol]

That's right

[@michaelzeller2542]

'This means a lot of trouble' dude I would give up my blatter to in an instant, if it grants me the ability to fly

[@Damond_Warrior]

Do a video on kiwis and other ratites anatomies ect

[@vishwakumar2864]

Woah ! Without a single stop for 8 days , do they not sleep ? 🤔

[@apnosaurus]

How fast would a bird need to fly if it weighed 1000-2000 pounds?

[@ZachariahMBaird]

Did you really need to specify that it was rural Alaska? That state isn't known for its bustling metropolises.