Birds Sensing Colours

[StringJunky]

I came across something the other day that was curious to me. An angler was demonstrating to someone how a green laser pointer can spook off water birds that are causing a nuisance. He pointed it at a coot's head and sure enough it flew off. He then pointed it at a moorhen that was pretty close in the bushes and it carried on completely oblivious even though the light shone across an eye at times. Does this mean that moorhens are totally blind to green?

[John Cuthber]

the word "moorhen" might cover different birds in different countries.

But if we are talking about this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moorhen

then the red beak is a give-away- it can see green light or that beak would look the same as a white one.

 

Presumably it's ignoring the laser for some other reason, one possible explanation is that it's already hidden in the bushes and that's the best defensive trick it knows.

 

On a tangentially related note I recently heard of an exchange between a teenage kid and an angler.

Angler

"Go away! you are scaring the fish".

Kid

"Scaring them? So what? you plan to kill them."

[StringJunky]

Yes, that's the one. Not that I'm happy about it but he shone the laser over it's eye and it never moved its head to avoid it like you would if someone shone a torch in your face. It carried on swimming peaceably in the bush. I get what you are saying though. We'll have to see what happens with them in open water.

[Strange]

I came across something the other day that was curious to me. An angler was demonstrating to someone how a green laser pointer can spook off water birds that are causing a nuisance.

 

As he risks injuring them (eye damage) I wonder if using them like this is legal?

[StringJunky]

Strange, on 31 Aug 2014 - 5:09 PM, said:

 

As he risks injuring them (eye damage) I wonder if using them like this is legal?

A cursory Google suggests that they are being used this way for this purpose legally. Having said this there is the how they are used to consider for which there is probably legal controls.