I understand they are smaller and can move faster than humans, but why can they wait so long before moving?
For instance, when you’re driving and a bird is able to wait until the absolutely last second before flying away and avoiding getting hit. What allows animals to have such better reflexes?
In: Biology
Birds sit there and almost get hit because they’re actually pretty bad at gauging the speed of an incoming object. They don’t really understand that your car is moving faster than anything in nature could ever move.
They instinctively fly away when something gets too close, but for a speeding hunk of metal that range is much too small and many definitely do get hit by cars.
More generally, small animals can have very quick twitch behavior because they have such little mass to accelerate. You’re a muscle and bone battleship compared to a sparrow, you’re not stopping on a dime.
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