alt Hacker NewsThe Genius of the Barn Owl's Feathers
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Reminded if this video immediately https://youtu.be/-WigEGNnuTE they got almost nothing on the mics.
My 9 yo corrected me the other day. “That’s not a barn owl, it’s a barrad owl.” I had to google it. Apparently they’re both a thing.
They mention that the ears have gone non-bilateral to achieve better 3d sound localization.
It brings to mind the question of why nothing seems to have evolved two pairs of ears with separate openings; We're all working with varying degrees of spectrum shaping to achieve up-down sound localization. If you wanted to design a robot that can perform sound localization, the obvious answer for that extra dimension would be to just double up on the microphones.
> Over the next few days, the owl makes 16 more strikes at mice, missing only four times, each time by less than two inches.
How did the experimenter measure miss distance in pitch darkness? IR illumination is presumably out in case the owl was able to see it, and I didn't think thermal imaging was a thing yet in the late '50s.
As a Christian I am always delighted to learn the brilliant things my Father made <3
Looking at the Russo/Ukrainian war, I wonder if/when someone introduces "owl drones".
Current drones are not very loud (well, Shaheds are), but if someone could make them more silent, they would be even harder to detect. Maybe covering them with a structure similar to owl featchers would do it.
What isn't mentioned is that owl feathers are generally less oily than many other birds. This makes them softer and thus quieter, but the penalty is that that they get water-logged faster. As a result, owls find it harder to hunt in wet weather, and extended rainy periods can cause real problems, especially in the breeding season, when youngsters need continual feeding.
(source: I used to volunteer at a Raptor conservancy).