Videos used to track head movements

By Macaulay Library Team

Eastern Meadowlark (Eastern) Sturnella magna [magna Group]

  • Texas, United States

Videos of animals in the wild are available in the Macaulay Library. Sometimes, it’s just a 3 minute video of a bird perched on a branch looking at its surroundings: RESEARCH GOLD!

Researchers from Purdue University used videos from Macaulay to track head movement of 29 bird species, including this Eastern Meadowlark. They learned that birds with a narrow range of excellent vision must move their heads more to scan for predators, and visual acuity varies across birds. This is important, because it’s often simpler to assume in predator-prey interactions, that the “sensory system of prey (and hence their behavior) varies little between species.” #mlresearch #mlvideo
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep38406#s1