Today I saw one of those long-tailed bird-catching hawks again, either a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned. Anyway, an “accipiter” as it’s called in more formal circles. It zoomed past but I knew it instantly: Accipiter.
This kind of bird always reminds me of a classic psych experiment done in the late 1930s by a guy named Lorenz, and if you’ve heard about it, skip this post. But if you haven’t, it’s kind of interesting.
The guy suspended a cross-shaped cutout over a bunch of newly hatched geese, propelling it as though it were flying. Like a kid’s model airplane. If the cross moved with the long part in the rear, the baby birds got agitated and tried to hide. But if the same cross moved over them backwards, with the long part in front, they were cool.
The cross’s side bars appear as wings. The long part looks like an accipiter’s tail. Danger. But, again, if this same shape moves in the opposite direction, the long part’s in front of the wings and looks like the neck of a goose. No danger.
The goslings’ reaction to this experiment suggested that some responses in animals are hard-wired. Not everything is learned. Instinct exists. Nature versus nurture and all that, with nature coming out on top.
Since that original experiment, there have been attempts to discredit it, and some studies have added varying interpretations. But it’s likely that young birds do in fact have an inborn fear of the predatory silhouette, whether guys in lab coats discovered it or not.
When I see the flash of an accipiter against the sky, I have an instant response, too. I think of the Lorenz experiment, just like I did today.
