Wings Take Dream

angel question, why is that flying squirrel glowing pink? Is it just bashful? Joining me today is my friend and the Daily Zygei, super producer and co host of Ethnically Ambiguous and the twitch Screamed Deckheads, Chief stews Anna Hosnie him. Thanks for having back. Thank you. I guess you have done the show I do the last time with Shrine, right, That's right, Yeah, I have no memory of a show after I do it. That's just how I've I've done so many podcasts. I have no memory of anything anymore.

That's all right. Like like a swallow back to San Juan Capistrano. You may not remember being here or know why you're here, but here you are again. Here I am again to talk yes, the movie with Denzel Washington. Yeah, yeah, we've decided to take a bit of a pivot with the pod. Animals are out, nobody cares about them anymore. But we are going to talk about the movie Flight with Denzel Washington. Oh what a great film. And now what did that airplane do? I mean, you shouldn't drink

and fly an airplane, folks, that's my opinion. That's a strong opinion. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, no, we are talking about animal flighting. I gotta do a shout out to a listener who sent in a question that inspired this whole episode. Um, I will read their email right now. Hi, Katie, I was listening to the podcast today and finally came up with the question I could send in so exciting. Here it goes. We know hummingbirds in the adorable hummingbird hawk moth have a gift for hovering, but I noticed

some larger songbirds can do it too. For just a moment, what's the story here? Size and weight obviously play a role, but what about similarly sized birds with the same diet and habitat. Can some of them hover while others have to get by with just boring old flying? Why please stay the most charmingest host in all the podcast land. Oh thank you, Ramon, very nice. That is a great question.

And yeah, it's really interesting because when we kind of think about birds flying, it's like, yeah, the birds, they flap their wings and up they go. But actually there's a lot of differences and how birds fly in the actual physics of like how a hummingbird gets in the air and how a big old vulture gets in the air, and it's it's a completely different set of physics with hummingbirds.

They're teeny, toyiny little If you have you ever like held a hummingbird Anna, Oh no, no, no, I don't even I've seen them up close, like at my hummingbird feeder, I've seen them fight, but I've never I don't think I've ever touched one. Yeah, I I feel like the only time I've held a hummingbird, it's been dead, which a little sad. That makes more sense as to how you would have touched it, right, Yeah, not Look, I didn't.

I'm not responsible. I didn't do anything wrong. Um, but you know, like you know what you defend, you're really quickly to defend yourself. I don't know about that. Katie, this is how I found it with a ten knife in its back. And I notice saying Katie did it. I will say they fight a lot, so if one hummingbird stabbed another in the back, I would not not believe it. Yeah, they're making they're making, uh kind of

like the competition between males is so fierce. We're actually going to talk about at the end of the show. The bird that's like the exact opposite when it comes to like the mating, like the hummingbirds joustics. Actually when they're competing with other males to mate, it's it's a very very brutal, very metal and another bird, a heat one of the biggest birds in the world, is actually very sweet and gentle when it comes to mating. So you can't judge a bird by how cute and small

it is. But yeah, they are. They are very interesting flyers because they don't kind of do just the like flap flap flap thing. They almost vibrate with how fast they're flying. Um. And it's when you're thinking about like how different birds fly, it's sort of like a helicopter versus an airplane when it comes to hummingbirds versus bigger birds.

So a helicopter is designed to be able to hover with these really quickly rotating blades that pushes air down and pushes the helicopter up, whereas like a plane basically has to get some forward movement and uses the lift of air passing over and under its wings to keep flying. Yeah, so kind of a it's not exactly the same. Birds aren't helicopters. I know, like people are like, oh, birds are drones, well means blah blah blah, But no, they're

they're they're designed differently than a drone. They both do spy on us, but technically slightly different physics going on with hummingbirds or hawk moths. Like, uh, the listener pointed out these these hummingbirds have a evolutionary look alike called the hummingbird hawk moth. And I've provided you with a picture of some cool example of parallel evolution there where it's a yeah, it's a humming it's a it's a moth that actually looks exactly like a hummingbird, but it's

a moth. We've been lied to. I can't really even understand like what I'm looking at, Like, what is this is that its tongue in the frowers just got a little book. Yes, it's proboscus, which is essentially like a tongue. But on an insect, does that go back in its mouth? Yeah? Yeah, I can. It can be with drawn and like pulled back in and that SIPs nectar. Got it? Okay, okay, I understand now what I'm looking at. What a surreal looking little guy because he kind of also looks like

he's got like cat eyes. Yeah, And that's what's so interesting is that what looks like a pupil on it, like a cat pupil, is actually not a pupil at all. It is it's compound eyes. This occurs in actually a few insects, like mantis. Is they look like they have a pupil that's like always conveniently looking right at you, and you feel like you're being followed, like the mantiss

are looking at you. And it's actually when light enters these compound eyes, it actually forms a dark spot of where all the light is getting sucked in to to the eyeball. So it's like if you have like a shiny ball and that highlight, it's like light bouncing off of the ball, so you move the ball. But the little highlight part on the ball always seems to kind of like follow you around because that's like from your angle and the goal of light, that's what's shining reflecting

back at you, so you see that highlight. It's just the opposite with a compound insect eye where that's like where the light is being absorbed. So it's a dark spot that follows you around, and it looks like it has a pupil and it's watching you, but uh no, it's not. I mean, it may be watching you, it may have a whole system of surveillance came so you don't know about, but it's actually not watching you with a little pupil. Got it, Okay, I have one. Yeah,

but yeah, very eerily similar. They have a similar flying style too. Uh but well, we'll talk about the the bird aspect of this, because I think we're kind of used to insects being able to buzz around and fly really quickly because they're so light, like if you've ever held them off, I don't know, you haven't held a hummingbird.

You don't seem to like to hold dead things, which is weird to me, but well, I've definitely picked up a dead moth and like, like I've had like dead moths like within like a space Simon, and I've picked them up and like taken them outside, but like I've never I don't understand how you would even touch a movie like a bird or a moth if it was alive, because they're just like flitting around to get away from

you the whole time. Well, I've actually had a sphinx moth, which is very similar to the hawk moth land on my shirt and refused to go. But it died anyways. Sound that's a that's a fun it's like a fun story like Homeword bound. Was it like a panicking or it was like no please? I think it was probably just at the end of its life cycle and it was just like I die here, here is where I die. Interesting? You know what they say the old thing, If a moth dies on you, it's an angel gets its wings right?

That is actually yeah, I have a wood plank that says that over in my kitchen Packy how dare you saying live laugh and lit moths die on your shirt? Good luck? Uh so? Yeah? So these smaller the bird basically an answer to Ramon's question when you have a smaller bird, Typically speaking, the faster it's metabolism is and

the faster it can fly. So you do see a lot of small birds similar to the hummingbird that do are able to some extent do this kind of like flying hovering, move not as well as the hummingbird can, because the hummingbird has physically evolved to specialize in extremely rapid wing beats and extremely precise hovering. So depending on the species, hummingbirds can beat their wings from ten to eighty times a second, so the speed of the wings

typically follows the size of the hummingbirds. The bigger the hummingbird, the slower it's wing beat relatively because it's still really really fast. But uh, giant hummingbirds who weigh in about twenty grams are the slowest, with ten to fifteen beats a second, and the amethyst wood star, a tiny hummingbird that weighs only three grams, beats its wings at about eighty beats a second, which I can't even think that fast.

I can't even like it's it hurts to think about, like I try to think about like actually doing that, and it hurts my brain because I can't put that many thoughts about bird wings in one second, well one, it's it's what that purple or that amethyst color that like magenta color on its neck is the most beautiful color I've ever seen. So vibrant. Yeah, yeah, they have these, like like a lot of birds, they have these micro structures in their wings that refracts light that makes it

so bright and irridescent. It's it's it looks like jewels. Um probably in part because like with jewels, like that's also has to do with like how light is refracting in the jewel, and so like you know, there they've got jewels for wings. Also, the name Amethyst wood Star, that's I feel like that's like if I went to like Malibu, I would I would meet someone named that. I'm Amethyst, would story? Would you like to try some of my essential oils? Amethyst? I just like to use

oils for my feminine flow. And would you like to join me? If your name is Amethan would Star? I will do anything you say. Here's the new here's the new product. It's made out of starfish tears and um octopus but holes. Oh my god, it sounds like it will work anything obscure like octopus butt holes. I'm like, well they, I mean, why else would they be grabbing you know, octopus butt holes unless it actually works? Right right? The weird are the ingredients like this must it must

work because they wouldn't go to the trouble surely. Yeah no, I would definitely someone names Amethyst would stars like, you know, try octopists, but holes. Seriously, it'll work. It's like no, I'm in, I'm in, I'm all in. Yeah. So they are, in addition to being absolutely gorgeous, just can beat their wings at a ridiculous speed, which allows them to be

able to hover in air. And if you've ever seen a hummingbird up close, they can like stop in midair and just like stay there stationary staring at you U, which is really like if you ever want to wear a hat made out of hummingbird feeders, like some some guy I remember reading a story about he created a hat that was essentially a hummingbird feeder so he could sit down and watch hummingbirds come up to his face. Well, they like had SIPs of nectar, and that that seems

like the life. I want a hummingbird sweeter, they would cover like right here, yes, yeah right, not opposed to that. Yeah. So what's interesting is these wing beats are the way that the hummingbird is shaped really influences how it uses

physics to keep it afloat. So the twisted has these twisting down strokes which create lift uh, and the upstrokes also keep the bird of float because usually when a bird flaps its wings, like the down stroke pushes it up and then the upstroke doesn't really help it because it's like you're not pushing down on the air, you're

just like lifting your wings back up. But the hummingbird, because of this like twisting motion of its wings at sort of a rotated angle, the upstroke actually cuts through the air in such a way that it creates these small air vortices like vortexes uh that act like tiny tornadoes uh, and through some physics that I don't quite understand, like creates kind of a vacuum that that gives the

bird even more lifts. So it's like getting double duty with like pushing up on the down stroke and then also creating some kind of weird wing tornado with upstroke. A vortices is the coolest thing I've ever heard. It's just the colurel of vortex I know, but I've never even thought of that before. But that's like a vortices. Like I remember when I went to Sedona and everyone's like, you've got to find the energy vortexes, and I was like, that's just the concept of a vortex is very cool

to me. And now that there's vortices, that does sound like something that Amethyst would Star would say, right, like, you gotta find the energy vortices all are. But you can definitely get with this activist. But I'll trust me. Let the octopus butthole lead you to the vortices. Open your mind to the octopus butthole. That weird teeling, tingling, numb feeling you're feeling in your fingers, that's just it working.

That's the vort disease. So their wings are also very stiff and don't bend in the same way that other birds wings do, so that it allows them to do these really fast beats because if they're bending, they just won't work in the same way and creating these like slicing through the air like a blade. And so it allows them this ability to hover unlike any other bird, and larger birds typically can't hover at all. Uh. The largest one of the largest birds that can hover doesn't

in a much different ways. So kestrels are a small wrapt or so a small bird of prey like a hawk or an eagle or something will take advantage of strong updrafts to hover in one place. So they'll find a windy spot and face opposite the wind direction and adjust their wings. So basically they just become like a bird kite. Uh, And this allows them to stay in one spot to look out for prey. But this is all about them being able to use available wind currents

to stay afloat. They can't beat their wings fast enough to like hover by using wing beats, so a wind kite or it's like a wing kite wind kite, it's the same thing. So the bird kite's tie a string to them, and you've got yourself a cool new toy. Everybody, don't do that. I never really understood the physicality of that, But now that you're like describing in detail, like they're so interesting. We need more hummingbirds. Let's just get more birds.

We know we need more humming roods, specifically humming around That's true. I mean, if you live in an area where you get hummingbirds, you can get certain plants in your garden or on your balcony that attract hummingbirds. You can also get hummingbird feeders that will attract hummingbirds in certain like You can also get like little wet wet stone things that like just have little pools of water

that they like to drink from. There's definitely ways you can manipulate hummingbirds to come to your home and you can get a bunch of them. There, hummingbird feeder hat, hummingbird feeder hat. I wonder if they sell those. I'm gonna google it humming bird, the bird feed or hats safe search off, let's check it out. You can get into any seconds from Amazon. Oh, lots of people have done this. But can I buy one or do I

have to make it on my own? Okay, well, there's handheld hummingbird feeders, but I don't think that's as stylish as an actual hat like they Oh, there's a red humming red hummer ring feeder, so you can wear it as a ring. I saw that right, But I want a full on hat though, is the thing? Yeah, in my head, you'll have to make one yourself. Yeah, maybe, like they can't make them because then if like a hummingbird like knocks your eyeball out, thinking your eyes delicious nectar,

then they'd get sued. But there is I just looked it up as well under Good Living Guide there's this article that says hummingbird feeder hat provides a fantastic birdwatching experience. Oh do they have instructions how to make it? Well? They have there Apparently there's a many options on how to make like I Google imaged it and there's so many different versions of it. Oh yeah, there's different styles for like what kind of hats do you want to wear?

Like you want to have a just a casual baseball hat. This guy's got it. He's just got like a like an apparantous attached to his baseball hat with little hummingbird feeders. But oh and she, the lady down here, has got like a sun hat with feeders attached to it and a bunch of flowers, so you can like dress it up, dress it down. A lot of people have thought about this,

they have, and I congratulate them for their ingenuity. I want to do like one of those hats they wear to like horse races, you know what I'm talking about? The fastened what do they call the fastened fascinators. Fascinators there you go. But the big, the big ones, like the really big ones that look like like a Getty museum on your head, like that defy physics. But then with a bunch of flowers and and hummingbird feeders attached to it, and heck, why not just some bird seed

on the top, you know, really go for it. A little cup of peanuts so the squirrels can get in there. Yeah, just you know, it's a big just a big hat with a bunch of food, hot dog on it. Let's let the seagulls come in. And you're gonna die if you put hot dogs on your hat. People are gonna come for you, or people. Birds are gonna come for your. Birds are gonna come from the people as well, people bird people. Right, Yeah, no, I know it's a risky thing to do, but I just want to be able

to see a baseball lover up close. Yeah, it's great for baseball lover watching. So, speaking of gliding, the way that kestrels float in the air, it's interesting because you go from the hummingbirds, who have perfected the art of perfect hovering and perfectly precise flying mammals are not as are not as great at that, with the exception of bats, who are amazing flyers, actually quite quite good flyers, quite

surprisingly efficient. Are our other attempts at flight as as mammals have been more of a kind of like just jump and let Jesus take the wheel. So we actually the last episode we talked about convergent evolution, and I didn't have time to talk about these guys, but I think they're really cool, so I couldn't resist mentioning them

on the flying episodes. So flying squirrels, sugar gliders, and colugos are three entirely different species of gliding mammals who all look like they should be cousins, but they're not.

It's an example of parallel evolution. So flying squirrels are a rodent in the squirrel family found in North America and Eurasia, and they are they basically are squirrel but you watch out the skin so that it's like a squirrel napkin, and then they can fly through by using these folds of skin that stretched from their forelimb ankles to their hind limb angles, and this is called a peta geum. The membrane of skin connecting their limbs and that allows them to glide. And this peta geum has

evolved separately and at least two other animals. So the sugar glider, who is not a rodent, it is a marsupial in the possum family, found in Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia. Uh and it looks a lot like a flying squirrel. Yeah, I can't really tell the difference other than they have stripes on their head. Yeah, a little pink nozy, Okay, So yeah, I mean they really do look like they should be the same animal, but they're not. In fact, they're not even in the same uh same

group of animal. They're they're completely different. The flying squirrels are rodents and the sugar gliders are marsupials on a completely different continent. There's such a freedom into just jumping and opening up your arms and body and letting yourself just glad on down. I know, have you seen those

videos of people in squirrel suits? Like there's there those Um, It's like if if jumping out of an airplane and using a parachute isn't like scary enough for you for some reason, there's a suit you can wear where it's you have I guess parachute material that runs from your front arms to your back legs and you basically become a flying squirrel and you jump off a cliff and then just like zoom downwards. It's not safe, it's highly dangerous.

A lot of people die doing it. So it's not like, oh, yeah, we've we've figured out how to make humans fly. It's like, yeah, maybe like seventy percent of the time, and then and then there's a big chunk of times that it doesn't really work out well. So but yeah, watching someone do that does something like it makes my butt like pucker inwards. I'm not really sure. It's like this feeling of free falling in a dream where all of your insides start to like shrivel up, like you just ate a lemon

with your butt or something. You know what i mean I'm talking about. No, I know, it's it's everything about it makes you want to like crawl into a ball. Yeah, yeah, it's I could. I could never know. It's I can't conceive of doing that. But yeah, I mean, these these little animals do it all the time and they're perfectly

happy too. And then the the other other species are colugos, which are flying mammals found in Southeast Asia, and while they look like they should be related to sugar gliders or flying squirrels, they are actually more closely related to primates. So yeah, yeah they are. While they are not primates, they share common ancestor with primates. Uh. Probably they're closer

relatives are things like lemurs um. But yeah, a slight difference between them and sugar gliders and flying squirrels is that they're undersides aren't as furry, so it looks a lot more horrifying from from their their bellies because they look they look they look more like a bat. Kind yeah, like a bat, but with weird wings that just stretches over its whole body. So it definitely looks like a cryptod from underneath. But when you look at the whole animal,

like from the top, they're very cute. They're they're very fuzzy and cute. They do look a little bit like if you rolled out a lemur with a rolling pin and gave it weird wings rolled it out. It's funny. Okay, it's weird that they're not related, but okay, yeah, well you'll just have to take my word on it. This uh know, species thing. Okay, because they look species. They all look the same. So if you're gonna tell me they're not even in the same family, no, yeah, mm hmm, yeah,

I know. It's so yeah. Sometimes like mother Nature just pulls a prank on us, like you think this animal is the same as this animal. Nobody, it's not even on the same continent. Oh, such weird. It's so funny to me, how to, like we just keep evolving similar things, Like just take like a mouse and like squish it

so floats like a frisbee. I mean, I feel like this is like a great example of evolution of like they just all needed this, so they evolved to have it in their different spaces because they're not technically connected. But like in whatever world or whatever environment they live in, they just were like, well I need to I need to be gliding, So you need to evolve into a glider. Yeah, look,

I need to. I need to be more like a kite because I've been jumping off these trees and let me tell you, when you hit the ground that is not fun like a kite. I wish I could just think that as a person, like I really I need to be more like a kite and then it would happen. Yeah, I know, I mean like that's I guess that's what people thought when they developed the squirrel suit that and they wore that, and you know some of them at

least survived when they do that. Well, they mean, but there's never been red It's like Red Bull evolved them. Gives probably like Red Bull sponsored squirrel suits doesn't seem like it just feels like something red will be like. And we also just jump off mountains with squirrel suits and you're like, oh my gosh, Okay, did you ever like watch those commercials as a kid and think, well, maybe maybe if I drink it and like jump off, you know, the balcony, I could actually fly Because I

was definitely dumb enough to have that thought occurred to me. Yeah, as a kid. Uh yeah. And uh I also did the thing where it's like I took like a blanket and try to make up my own parachute and like would jump off not not too not high heights because I was smart enough to know that I would get really hurt if I did that. But uh yeah, I I definitely did try to kind of do human human squirrel action flying squirrel action and it never worked. Yeah.

I mean I feel like there's a tech behind it that either you have to evolve your body into or Red bull has to build for you. I really convinced Red Bulls making these suits. I I think I'd be okay with like, uh, just big flaps of skin if it meant I could fly, you know, oh for sure. Like I if you could tuck them in somehow, like fold them up when you're not when they're not in use. But yeah, that'd be that'd be awesome, old them up when they're not I pocket. That's how. That's how these were.

Like when you look at them when they're not flying, not gliding, they look pretty pretty cute and like poofy and fluffy. But it just turns out that they can like transformer into like a flying napkin. Yeah, we're going to take a quick break and then when we get back, we're going to talk about murmurations, which is not just me mumbling into the microphone and not doing a good podcasting. It's something else and it's really cool. So we will

be right back. Anna, have you ever seen a bird mrmuration? Oh you want me to lie? Of course, of course, I'm I love murmurations. I mean, God, the murmuration of four it was amazing. No, you forget that mrmuration. I know exactly what you mean. Well. Bird mermerations are basically, when you have a giant flock of birds all flying in unison, they will form these mind bending patterns in the air. And I have actually included for you in a video of some really amazing startling mrmerations if you

want to check that out. I think I have seen video of this before. M hmm. Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen this in person though. Yeah, I've never seen bird mermerations in person because I don't I've never lived anywhere where they're like huge migratory flocks of starlings. It looks like there's like God, looks like they'd kill you if they came through you. Well yeah, if they if they like flew right through you, I think you

would die. Right. Wow, that's so cool. It's so mesmerizing to look at, almost like a visual therapy where you're just taking it in and letting your mind and shut off. Yeah, it is. It's kind of almost hypnotic, like like the a hypnotic sort of psychotropic patterns that these birds are managing. So you'll look in the sky and you'll see what looks like kind of a spotty black cloud, and it's

all made out of a huge flock of birds. And as they turn directions and fly, there's like patterns that like form through them, like waves of darker bands, and like as they turn like it it changes shapes, but you can actually see like a wave of like dark color like move through it as they all simultaneously shift directions,

And it's beautiful and kind of intimidating too. It's like one of those things where it's like, you know when it's like you're you're in awe of something, something is awesome, like the true meaning of the word awesome. It's like, I'm actually in awe when I see this because it's so big and it's like this big blob moving in the sky. I think if I had never seen this before and didn't know what it was, I would think

it was aliens. M yeah, I could see that. Also like in that movie Um the Crudes, Oh yeah, they have those like whatever when they get to that weird land, they have those creatures or like it looks like that the Starlings flying all together. But then they just come through and like eat a giant like creature like a a rhino or something by just like going by it, and then all that's left, or they come and like take it over, and then all that's left is just

its bones. Right, That's what I think about. Yeah, it was this the Crudes one or the Crudes too, I think too, okay to back in action. Yeah, I've only I only saw the Crudes one, I think on a on a airplane, so my memory is a little hazy of the Crudes adventures. But unfortunately, starlings do not eat flesh, so you're not actually in danger when you see one of the smmerations unless you're under it, then you might

get pooped on. Uh. But yeah, So murmurations, while also looking like amazing works of art in the sky that are kind of unbelievable, they are really interesting from a scientific perspective, from a physics and from animal behavior perspective. So murmurations are patterns that occur when you see flocks

of thousands of birds all flying. It's similar to like a school of fish, you know, when you see a school of fish and then they have those like waves of weird it looks like a wave of a shining color or a dark band moving through because the fish are all turning at the same time. It's like that, but in the sky. Uh. This typically happens during mass migration of European starlings. So starlings are a bird that it's a little smaller than a pigeon. It's actually really

beautiful in my opinion. It's got this dark, purple eriridescent color. It's like purply black. It's got like black feathers that can like eardesks. It looks like an oil slick or something where when you when the lightships, it can like turn kind of purplely kind of green. I was gonna say it would be cool because I was looking at the photo, like if you could see those colors within the murmur or whatever that I know, I know that

would be cool. I don't know if you can. I think they're too they're too probably too far away for those two colors to really register. But yeah, I don't since I've never actually seen one in person, I've only seen distant videos of them. I don't know if you can. Yeah, they are individually quite beautiful too. They also they're called starlings because they have these little speckles. I think it's because of the little white speckles on them that looks

like stars. So they will gather in the hundreds of thousands during their migration south throughout Europe. So there can be over seven hundred thousand individual jewels in a single flock of European starlings. So the question of well, why do these murmurations occur is actually more mysterious and complicated than it seems when you first think about it, because they spend sometimes forty five minutes in the sky just

forming these complex patterns as they move in unison. And so the purpose of this is not really well understood even among ornithologists, which is like someone who studies birds that the bird whispers um, but uh so they're like when you think about it's like, okay, well, large flocks are protective, right, Like, if you're a bird, you want to be in a big flock, So it makes sense why there's a big group of them. Uh And by clustering with a bunch of other birds, you lessen the

chance of being preyed upon. So it kind of makes sense that they would move in this big group so that part maybe not so mysterious, but why how are they forming such complex patterns? Uh? And how are they doing it? And how do they know like which direction they're supposed to go exactly exactly? So that's a big question and that part of it has actually been somewhat

answered by research. So in Italy in Piazza day Chinquacento University of Rome, physicists led by Andrea Cavania and Irene Jardina have been studying starling murmurations for nearly two decades, so these are physicists interested in it. They set up multiple cameras to gather three D data on starling flocks. So starling populations in the area of Rome has increased to be in the millions millions during migration, so they set up this mass starling surveillance operation like a bird

ice cream van. Don't worry about it, birds, just some normal bird ice cream. So they used all this camera data to create a computer model of the starling flocking behavior. So basically like taking in all this information they got from all these cameras and then turned it into a computer program through computer magic, and we're able to basically say, like, well, okay,

figure out how they're managing to do this. And so last episode we actually talked about something called the Game of Life, which is this old timey computer game where you would just put in a few simple rules for each pixel on the screen and it would create like this amazing complexity from a few rules of pixels forming patterns. And it's pretty similar here because what these researchers found is that each startling positions itself depending on the it's

seven um closest neighbors. So it basically tries to get in the center of like it's seven closest neighbors and be kind of equally distant from each of them. So it's kind of like when you're driving on the freeway, Like you don't base your position on the freeway on a bunch of drivers way far away that you can't see. You just look at your the people in front of you, next to you, and behind you, and if you're a good driver, you try to like maintain sort of an

equal distance like buffer around you. Reaction literally like yes, yeah, exactly. So if one startling changes direction on the other side of the flock, that information quickly transmits to starlings that can't even see that bird because they're all very quickly reacting to their seven closest neighbors. In fact, they're so quick, uh that a bird on the edge of a flock can change its direction, causing a flock of hundreds of birds to all move in less than half a second.

So information like per hundreds of birds like travels in less than half a second, which is pretty good better than my internet for sure. I think we need bird Internet, right. Yeah, if it's that quick, I'm not going to complain. Yeah, they should just be in charge of our internet. Yeah, like spectrum the worst birds. Yeah, let's do this bird Internet. It's got to happen. They promised us fiber optics. We didn't get it. They promised us a Google Fiber. We

didn't get it. I'm pitting my hopes on bird Internet. I know what I don't. I mean, there's nothing birds could do to us that Spectrum hasn't already done to us, to be honest, bird fiber right, Like, I'd rather be pooped on by a bunch of birds than deal with with the spectrum Internet. Anyways. This thus concludes our Internet roasting section of the podcast. I was pretty good. We did pretty well Internet and a right, guys, so many problems always too slow zing got them speaking truth to power,

all right, But back to the birds. That's how they do that. That's how they do these incredible murmurations and um. But the question still remains of like why are they doing this? So one potentially obvious answer would be that, like, oh, well, it's protective by doing these these movements, these coordinated movements. It's intimidating to predators because it gives the predators a sense that this is a much bigger organism where it confuses the predators about like where where it's going or

what it's doing. And this is actually behavior that bees will do. So a hive of bees, well sometimes all come outside the hive and like sit on the hive and then all flick their wings in in uh, like in a wave like synchronously in synchronization, and this creates what looks like these concentric waves of dark bands of color just like moving through the hive. So it looks like like a bull's eye that's like constantly expanding and contracting,

and it's really mesmera. It looks like like you're being hypnotized by the bees, and it's mesmerizing and it makes the potential predators like wasps or birds that might otherwise try to like attack the hive like it. It intimidates them, and it confuses them, and it makes them not want to approach. So that's the thought of like, well, maybe this is what murmurations do. They basically scare off predators from the area or confuse them so that they give up.

But one of the problems with this theory is that murmurations last so long that researchers and and animal behavioral experts think that that it doesn't quite explain, like, well,

why would they be out so long? Because if you're trying to ward off predators, going back to like a roosting area is the safest place to be, So why are you spending all of this time out in the open doing this behavior that even though it may kind of help intimidate some predators, there's definitely a chance that like a peregrine falcon is going to come in and get some unlucky guy who's like on the edge of the flocks. Have they thought maybe they're just kind of

like having fun. That's actually exactly what they've thought. That's a really good point. So the last one of the more recent theories about it is that they're just kind of having fun. Uh. So, starlings are actually highly intelligent. They are one of the types of birds that can figure out puzzles. They actually can mimic human voices, similar to a parrot, so they can talk. They might not know exactly what they're saying, but they can definitely talk.

They are sometimes a nuisance in some areas because they can figure out how to open things, so like they can figure out how to open milk bottles, so if you get milk delivered to your door, they can get into that milk and drink the milk. So they're highly intelligent. And we know, the more intelligent and animal is the more enrichment and play that they crave. So uh, it may be that they are all essentially dancing with each other.

It could be a form of social engagement that is both fun to do and also reinforces these social bonds in a big flock of individuals who might otherwise struggle to feel a connection with the bigger flock. So yeah, no, I mean, you're you're exactly right that this is potentially the reason they're just having fun, which I love. Whenever we're trying to figure out some kind of weird animal behavior, and then someone's just like, well, maybe it's just farting around,

you know. I mean that's what I would be doing. Let's just murmur around. It would be cool murmuring, do a little murmuring these some murmurations. Yeah, I want it once. I'm so excited about to get my second dose of the vaccine. I don't murmurate once. Once we're out of quarantine, Let's all murmurate. Let's all memorate. You want to, Okay, let's let's find find a place to find time. Let's

all get together murmurate. I like. I like the idea of murmurating because it doesn't really sound like what you think it is. Right, we're all just out here mmorating it again, sounds like something that Amethyst would star is like, Chinlie like Hi, So we're going to meet up at the beach and we're gonna have our octopus bet holes with us, and we're gonna memorate. We're gonna murmur it.

We're gonna memurate for forty five minutes and really open our consciousness that I'm actually taking a murmur it memoration class with amethysts would start teaching it so right, it's hard to get into wait listed for years. I know, I know. But the frustrating thing she's always trying to like sell you stuff like Jade's just and I've bought

them all. I can't stop. She's just so convincing. It's the soft tone, you know, She's just softly saying, now we're now, we're gonna murmurate and I want you to spend five minutes with your dead octopus and little mermurate together. And what do you know about albatross? Is um that that's not the fish. It's not a fish, it's the bird. Is it a type of fish too? No? Hang on, now you've got me wondering albatross. Oh no, I'm thinking of albacore, albacore. Oh wait a second, is there albatross

fish as well? Albat trust fish? I googled albatross fish and Nope, that's just the name of a company. Okay, that I'm definitely thinking of albacore. Yeah, I think you're thinking of albu core. I don't know of any is called an albatross fish. Yeah, I'm thinking of albacore, albacore yeah, Now, albatross is a bird. Albacore is a type of tuna. Got it. And a manticor is like a lion, a flying lion, demon flying I'm sorry what flying flying lion?

Deep amanticore? Isn't that like a lion with a scorpion tail? Manticor I've never even I've never even heard of a horde of that. It's a flying lion with a scorpion tail and a human face. Is a manticor? Oh? Oh, this is the it's from. It's I think of it as like a sphinx, right, not really a sphinx, it's a but this is male. Yeah, this is typically Uranian culture. Actually, we have the like on our there's like, that's what

I've never known it was called a manticor. Maybe I think of it as like, yeah, it's like a mythical Persian creature. Wow, I've never even known that it was called amanticre news to me. Yeah, it's that is cool. What's like, what are the myths surrounding it? It's like you can't conquer it, basically, I don't know. It's like this, it's apparently like the strongest creature, mythical creature. I mean it it is a lion with a scorpion tail and it can fly, so I believe it. Yeah, it's all

the thing. I only know like what it's called and Farsi because I've legitimately like never spoken about this thing. What what is it called in Farsi? It's like a It's like a maddio like something like that, like a it's very similar. Actually, now that I'm like saying it and thinking about it, it makes sense that it's a manticore because it's like madia how mad. So it's like man person or like a human. Honestly, I don't know

how to trains. I'm not very good at like translating certain things from Farsi to English because I just like don't know the roots and stuff because I'm not like I didn't take Farsi in school. I'm just learned it speaking growing up in my family and like speaking kind of more of a slang Farsi. Um. I mean, I don't mean to like be like now suddenly be an etymology scholar. It's mad whole, but like I don't understand why it's like man man who eats or something like

that man eater. I just googled manticore etymology and it's the same thing. For Manticore, it's man. It's a from the Greek mantic chorus uh from an oh no and actually corrupt reading an Aristotle for marte corus, which is from an Old Persian word meaning man eaters. So the Greek actually got it from the Middle East. Okay, that makes sense because to me it literally mad whole means literally like man. I guess it makes sense man eat right.

I couldn't connect that in my mind though in the moment when you asked me, I was like a man to eat cobetti. Obviously man eater. That makes that's so obviously in front of you. But man, you can eat. I alwaysh we had that, folks, that's the fussy saying of it. But Manticor, now it all makes sense and that and that's an English word for it. Manticore comes from from the Greek word, which in turn comes from the Old Persian words. So like it's just a big,

big circle. Yeah, comes full circle. So we got from to Manticor because we started at Albatross and then we went to Albacore, and then we went to Manticora. So let's back it up to albatros. But speaking of more myths and legends, I want to talk about how the expression and albatross around your neck comes from. Have you heard that? Like expression? It's not used as much I think nowadays, but there's like this expression like, oh, it's like an albatross around my neck or this thing is

a real album trust around my neck. No, I've never heard that. God, you're making me feel like an old person. I literally, like Katie, me and my friends don't talk about these kinds of things. But it's, like, I mean, to be fair, I guess I've never really heard it in real life growing up. It's just an expression, an expression I guess that used to be used more often

than it is now. Well, you know, the other thing is I was raised by Persian immigrants to like, I don't know a lot of like classic American sayings or anything like that, because my parents don't. They don't say that kind of stuff, you know, They're just they have their own I know, like a lot of weird Persian sayings where I'm like, what does that even mean? You know, because it doesn't translate correctly to English. But like American sayings and stuff like that are actually a big blind

spot of mine. I just don't know. It might even be more of a British thing than American because I've only ever seen it, like in I've only ever i think, seen it British people use it. I've never heard it, like I've never heard it growing up. I've never heard it used it in like you know, maybe like in a New York Times article. I've seen it. But they're ridiculous people. You're right for the New York Times. Oh yeah, but yeah, the the legend behind this saying is actually

really interesting. So even if you've never heard the term an albatross across around your neck, where it comes from is ridiculous. So it's actually, uh so an albatross around your neck just for for people who are younger than me or don't read the same weird old books or whatever. Uh, it's like it's a burden you are forced to be responsible for. So like you know, I don't know an example like, ah, this car is broken down, so it's

like an albatross. It's an albatross around my neck or uh, it's like it's like something that's like holding you down when it doesn't necessarily need to be. It's like a useless almost yeah, inconvenience, but you're but you're still responsible for it, so you have to deal with it. But it's actually from a poem in the late eighteenth century written by Samuel Taylor Coolidge called the Rhyme of the

Ancient Mariner. And so it's like when I say poem, it's one of those old poems where they're like, I'm gonna write a book sized poems. Uh, it's it's not like one of our modern short poems. Or it's like you know, hey there, boss, here's an albatross and it makes me cross. Uh. I don't know, like if you like write a poem about an albatross, I'm like, albatross, man, I'm I'm cross about this albatross. But I'm boss, I'm the boss of albatross. But no, this was this is

an old timey poem that's like thirty pages long. So I didn't read it, I'm gonna say that, Uh, but I did read the spark notes for it. And now I'm going to give you a summary of the spark notes of this thirty page long poem. So basically, there's like a superstition that killing an albatross at sea brings bad luck, and I don't really I don't know where

that superstition started from. I think it's like albatrosses are supposed to be like related to wind spirits or something like they're they're good wind spirits and if you kill one, you'll piss off the wind spirits, which is bad if you're a sailor. But in this poem written by this old English dude, uh, one of the sailors does kill an albatross because that's you know, just like, well, I'm

gonna kill albatross. And this causes angry spirits to push their ship into the equator, where it becomes uh be stilled, which basically the wind stop and the ship is just stuck in there, and so they're all uh going to starve and thirst to death. But still no, no, it's be calmed. Sorry it's called the calmed. But could happen, Yeah if back in the old times, like if you had a ship that runs entirely on wind power and the winds stop, you're kind of screwed if the winds

don't start back up again. What about paddling? Can you get your paddles out? Or is the boat. It's a big boat, pretty big boat. I mean, the Vikings did do paddling with their big boats because they would like enslave people and make them man all the paddles. But I don't I think like if you're in like a you know, like like eighteenth century uh boat and you just got those big sales and there's no wind, you're

you're kind of doomed. Um. But uh so yeah, so like all the other sailors blames the bird murderer, uh for causing this to happen, and as punishment they or him to wear the dead albatross around his neck since now they're all going to die of thirst and they're mad at them, and it's like this is your fault. Now you have to wear this albatross. That's that's very York. Yeah.

Did she wear a swan or something? Same thing, because the neck went around her neck and was like the halter if you will, That's what I think of immediately, and that generated so much like media controversy that she always had to address in interviews and stuff that like, it wasn't that itself an albatross around her neck. The swan dress around her neck was an albatross around her neck. I'm snapping because of how was thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it that and that's that's how good I

am at literary analysis or New York analysis. Anyways. Yeah, the rest of the story gets really weird, so I do want to talk about it. Basically, so they're mad at this guy to make them wear a dead bird. Then the spirit of death comes on a death ship and punishes all the sailors by having them slowly die one by one, but punishes the bird murderer even more by making him undead and have to watch all his crewmates die and their corpses rot. This story goes from

zero to a hundred really fast. Uh. And then the bird murderer is just like languishing on the ship and he has a change of heart and he's like staring into the ocean, going like I love all the animals in the sea. And then the spirits are like, ah, so you learned your lesson and all we had to do was kill everyone on your ship. So then the wind spirits like guide the ship back to shore. Uh. And then like a big whirlpool eats the whole ship

and all the undead. Oh wait, I forgot the spirits do inhabit the rotting bodies of all his crewmates, brings them back alife enough so that they can man the ship and get it back to shore, which is I

guess nice of them. But then only the mariner, the bird murder guy like escapes the ship as it's getting sucked into a whirlpool, and then he gets saved by a couple of fishers, and then he his punishment is like he has to spend eternity wandering the earth telling his bird murder story and how it's wrong to murder birds. Don't do it, or else all your friends will get turned into zombies and then suck into a whirlpool. I don't know. I don't like that at all. That escalated

so quickly. I know. It was like, also, what is with Like why would they punish all of the other sailors like they killed them all? I mean, I guess he's like eternally damned or something. Is his punishment, He's got to tell this bird story. Oh and also he's telling the story at someone's wedding, I think, And that's like, yeah, so he's like this old, like creepy sailor guy comes to your wedding. He's like, Mom, actually a bird murder Mbie,

just bad vibes. Actually murdered a bird. Now my zombie doomed to patrol the land and tell everybody up my store about how murdered a bird. He's like that guy you start talking to not realizing you're about to be in a conversation with him for two hours, and you're like, oh my god, wrap it up. Yeah. I had that at a cafe where someone came up to me and started crying about how like he met Katie Perry and like how she needs to take better care of her skin.

And while I think that conversation was only two minutes, it's certainly felt like two hours. Well those are some thoughts that you really have to know what's going on to like engage with, like what her skin right now? And he was like full on, like sobbing and about it. And I didn't. It's a complete stranger, and like just sat at my table and was like like I just came back from a party with Katie Perry and like this girl, like she needs to take better care of herself.

And it's like I don't think he was lying, But I do think it was because, like you know, we live in l A. Anything's possible. But I was scared of what was happening because I it's like I, I don't I don't know Katy Perry. Maybe talk to her about this. I'm not a dermatologist either, please, sir you Yeah, like, may I enjoy my little soup and piece? Sir? No? All right, I guess we're having this conversation. Then this is great. That's like such a before time story that

would never happened today. No one's lot near anyone anymore. Someone took too many drugs at Katy Perry's party, got really weepy and decided to approach a stranger about Katy Perry's a need to do better skincare regemen. Yeah, it's great. I feel for her anyways, that's the modern uh the rhyme of the ancient mariner tale. I guess I should write a thirty page poem about that. But albatross is this is an animal show. Let's talk about the real life albatross is and what they are. So what is

an albatross? Is it just like a really big seagull? Uh? No, it's not there. You go Answer Solved podcast over. No, I'm kidding. So albatrosses are a family of some of the largest seabirds and one of the best terrestrial flyers in the world. Uh So, despite their amazing flying abilities and similar look to a seagull, albatrosses are more closely related to penguins than two seagulls, which is again another

like kind of bonkers like evolutionary thing. We looked at the flying squirrel and the sugar glitter and colugo, it's like these are not at all related. Well, yeah, the the albatross is more closely related to a little waddling penguin than it is to a seagull. While I'm looking up the photos to compare, they definitely have they have like the penguin base, but they have the seagull beak.

It's strange, right, because penguins are are not good flyers because they can't fly at all, they're zero flyers, but they have adapted to become very efficient swimmers, whereas albatross is adapted to become the world's most efficient flyers. So it's just kind of incredible the twists and turns that evolution can take. Yeah. Wow, So there are somewhere between

thirteen to twenty four species of albatross. Uh. The reason this number is variable is that there are disagreements on some of the taxonomy, like whether there's like a species that's actually two species, or if it's one species, or if it's truly an albatross like blah blah blah. You know, I I'm not gonna get into it because I'm if I, like try to weigh in on the controversy, the albatross controversy, I'm going to get like some very angry letters from

like albatross experts, like, don't at us about this. We're just two little ladies trying to figure it out. I can't get attacked by albatross twitter, I'll be ruined. So the largest albatross and one of the largest birds in the world are the wanderer albatrosses and the Southern royal albatross species who they both live around the southern Oceans, and they have the largest wingspan in the world of up to eleven feet or three point five meters. They

are taller like if when they stand wing to wing. Uh, They're taller than basically every human except for maybe a few outliers. Um, are they taller than Shack? Yes? Is it? Well? I mean Shack's not eleven feet tall, right, I don't know anymore, Katie. This is because it's just a wild They're so big. I'm googling it to my Google search of hummingbird hat is shaquille emil. He is a mere seven feet one inch. All what a shrimp? A small guy. And I actually shared an image with you and and

I'll share with the listeners as well. It's a full grown human being standing next to one of these birds. Yeah, it's uh, it's like, oh, yeah, they're dinosaurs. They're dinosaurs. Is way too big? Yeah, So how what do they look like? They tend to be white with pink or yellow long beats with a downward curve at the end, and they can have gray brown and yellow markings. So

their wings are often dark gray. Uh, And they have what looks like black eyeliner, sometimes very very maybe line maybe it's birds, maybe it's but it's also like a bit of a smokey eye. It's really cute. It's very good. I can't what I wouldn't give to be able to do my eyes like albatrosses do their eyes. It's very good. It's very on point. You wish you could have such great makeup. I know, I wish I could have bird eyes. It sexy eyes like a bird. So speaking of sexy eyes,

albatross is mate for life and are very loving. So like I mentioned at the top of the episode, they're kind of like hummingbirds are a little jerkasses when it comes to mating. They fight, Uh, they compete with other males, and they like jous and it's kind of scary. Albatrosses are sweethearts. They're romantic. They select a mate by dancing

with them. And basically it's just like a bunch of albatross is all gathered together on an island and they dance with a bunch of different partners and like the part like all on the dance floor, and then partners keep dropping off and separating until they're left with the one partner that they choose, and they dance together and

they will mate for life. So they uh, throughout their courtship and throughout their life, they will continue to dance together and do little um move like little gestures of affection like beak bumps and nuzzles to maintain their relationships, so it's adorable. They'll like sit like like beak to beak and like kind of tap their beaks together lovingly. It's so cute. They even come up with their own little love language between the two of them. They have

unique calls they only use with their partners. They basically come up with like loving names for each other and unique calls that they use with each other. And the only time they seek out a new partner is if one of them sadly dies, like they they're in it for the long haul ride or die, ride or die baby, and uh yeah, I mean they do sometimes die, so then it's like, well, I guess we don't ride if

you're dead, but you know, right or die. It's really important for them to have this monogamous of style because of the way they raise their chicks. So they have one chick at a time and as s torrible little fluff ball, uh and they will stay with the chick to guard it. So one of the parents has to stay and guard this chick because it's helpless and it would be a delicious little nugget for a predator, So

one parent stays behind to protect their nest. They will do everything they can to find off predators, while the other parent will be out at sea fishing and they will collect a bunch of fish so that they can come home and they eat the fish. And what they do is they regurgitate special fish vomit uh for their chick to eat when they get back. So the birds

are totally reliant on each other to remain faithful. So the bird awaiting will go without food sometimes for days or weeks with their chicken is just relying on their partner to come back. And the partner out at sea has to rely on the partner to stay with the chick uh and and keep it safe. So they alternate to like sometimes the mail will go out for fishing some since the female will go out. So I love the quality in the household right. It's a lot of

trust to a lot of trust. And in addition to be adorable spouses and adorably loving parents, they are the world's most efficient flyers. So Alba trusses can rack up a massive number of frequent flyer miles uh. The wandering Alba trust that uncomfortably large one we talked about earlier can fly several million miles in a lifetime. Bird flight like not even on an airplane. They're not like getting on Delta, you know what I mean. I mean they should do, not how many miles they'd have racked up.

If they did, Dude, they'd be flying for free for the rest of their lives, free vacations for the rest of their lives. It's a shame that Delta doesn't count bird miles. Their resting heart rate while flying is the same as when they're floating on water. They're able to exert very little effort and glide on strong winds. M I T. Researchers have found that the birds use roller coaster like arcs of flight to ride wind currents called

dynamic soaring. So basically they use physics of these wind currents above the sea to glide and ride on them. So they'll like go down and build up momentum and go up a wind current and go down. Whoops, I bump my microphone. But I guess if I was an albatross flying, I would bunk into my microphone like that anyways. Um, yeah, so they totally take advantage of the physics of air currents above the ocean, and they are able to just

kind of like glide like an airplane. So like from the they're like the total opposites of the hummingbirds, both in courtship behavior and also like their their their flight where albatrosses are in it for like the long long gliding and hummingbirds are just sort of very very fast, fast and yellow birds. And these are very responsible birds that just want to settle down. Did you say yellow or yolo yolo birds? Uh? The hummingbirds are like yellow.

You only live one Okay, That's what I thought you said, But then I was like, there's no way she said that. No, of course, because they like they they live fast, they have shorter lifespans. They have really fast metabolism. They gotta they gotta get from one flower to another. They they do not mate for life. They they yeah, live very fast and furious lifestyles, whereas the albatross has a very long life span and they take stuff more slowly. They

kind of live more than Margaritaville lifestyle. Uh. Like. Oh, and speaking of albatross lifespans, guess how old the oldest albatross in the world is after five million miles, let's see thirty. She is seventy years old. Oh my god, and she looks fantastic. I've given you a picture of her. Her name is Wisdom the Albatross, and she is at the very least seventy years old, still rocking, amazing, amazing,

smoky eye. And so she lives in Kapa, Hawaii. And she's not only the oldest albatross, she's the oldest known wild bird. So while uh, you may think like, well, there are parents that have potentially lived longer, the birds that have lived longer have been in captivity. So she's a completely wild bird and she's lives this long, which is amazing, and it's harder to live that long in the wild. Um, she's had over forty chicks in her lifetime. And while that like may not seem like a lot,

they have one chick at a time. It's like a human being having forty children in a lifetime. No, I think that's a lot. Forty kids. Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah. So she's actually outlived several of her mates. She never divorced. She's never been divorced. She's just like a black widower. Yeah she but yeah, I mean like she's had successful relationships. Um, but are their deaths explained or have they all just mysteriously disappeared. He's got beak marks in his back. Ma'am. Well,

I wouldn't know where that came. How interesting, change, police officer. You know, I couldn't possibly be involved. Have I mentioned how beautiful your feathers are? Mrs Officer Bird? Oh well, that's comfy kind of you. How would you like to be Mrs seventy year old albatross lady? Sorry? Mr seventy year old albatross lady. Her beak is you can see her beak has some wear and tear though, like that's the beak of a seventy year old bird. That's what

I found really interesting. Her feathers look impeccable, pun intended, but her beak does look marred and like old. Because I wonder if like the feathers, you know, they they probably they regenerate feathers probably more often than they regenerate like that that beak, heartbeak materially al So yeah, it's definitely like that is the beak of a seventy year old bird, A hard smoking, whiskey drinking seventy year old bird.

That bird smokes for sure. You're right, you're right. Let me tell you about the time my my fourth husband. How I loved him so much. His name was Mahty. Well he got eaten by a shock, you know how it is. I told him, told him, Matty, you can't wear that bathing suit. That looks like a bunch of hot dogs or shots gonna eat you. And a shock did eat him. But God bless him. He was one of my better husband's. That's a if that bird talks, that's what it sounds like. She's like a little after by,

you know, thirty fourth child. You know, I decided I was gonna, you know, get a new man. Well, you know, my thirty fifth child went to art school. I told him he should be a lawyer, but he went to art school. Nobody listens to me. They just said I They just said, don't listen to that old bird. And now here I am. I'm the smartest bird alive. Look

at my eye makeup amazing. She's beautiful and she's also like it's weird because she's out of some of her the scientists who have studied her, which is I mean, kind of mind boggling. I guess, like what the scientists who banded her originally, which means like putting a leg band on them. So they can be identified actually died before this bird has. So Look, if I was going to be a bird, that's how I would do it.

I would outlive every scientist who tried to stuff. I had a bood watching and that birdwatches thought he could outlive me. No way. List And I smoked five packs a day and I'm still kicking just drinking Martiniz and Martinis. Oh. I love her. It's amazing. Good for her exactly, good for her, for outliving humans, good for her probably hopefully. Yeah, I hope she is like a two year old bird, just rock and rocking it. How old is the bird that's like after her? Like? Is there like a large gap?

Like who's the second oldest albatross? This um second oldest albo They search off second oldest albatross, nine oldest birds in the world from Oldest dot Org. For all your needs about old things good, let's see. Oh so, okay, I'll just like, let's in the episode by going through this list of oldest birds, shall we from Oldest dot Org? As you do, I'll put cue some cue, some dramatic music over this. Uh So. In Chile, uh the oldest flamingo is believed to be in her her sixties. Wow,

flamingo in her sixties. Now that is like really like a retired woman of flamingo. Yeah, she still looks gorgeous. Of course they list Wisdom here. Um, now wait a minute, Oh I see so the one of the oldest birds in the world is actually a captive bird in Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut. He is a male Andean condor who is eighty years old or was. No, wait, he was eighty years old, and I don't know if he's still alive, but that is respectable. Now he does look eighty years old.

I gotta say. Now it as he met Wisdom. You can't matter. You can't play matchmaker with these birds now because because they would be perfect. I don't know, maybe wisdoms into like like young guys, you know what I mean, young birds. Let's see a real real cougar. Oh my god, he's so handsome he is. I like his little puffy white neckroff. I think that really brings another level to his style. You know what, I actually agree with you now, I do think that he and Wisdom share a similar aesthetic.

Let's let's try and get them, get them to me. I mean he may disappear. Yeah, there's another flamingo at a zoo who is at least eighty three years old. Wow, flamingos live a long time, a long day time. I didn't realize I didn't know that at all. A cockatoo at a zoo, a Brookfield zoo named Cookie the cockatoo lived to be eighty three years old. And a female green wing macaw named Poncho at Beck's Pets and Exotics

uh is Or was nine two years old. In Wait, this bircha lived in a store and no one would buy him. I why would you put that thought in my head? And I'm sorry the pets I think he was. I think he was the pet stores pet. Okay, there you go. He's fine. He's living a great life. Oh my god, Fred the cockatoo, the male sulfur crusted cock a too at Bonarong Wildlife Sanctuary, was a hundred and

three years old. And oh my god, Charlie, the female blue and yellow McCall caw of the health Field Nurseries in Sirie, England, was a hundred and fourteen years Okay, that's that's old. That's an old bird. Cocky Bennett, he's a male sulfur crusted cockatoo owned by some Australian guy in nineteen sixteen, was a hundred and twenty years old when it died, just owned by some Australia I have to show you this ancient, goddamn bird. It's definitely looks old,

like very old that birds not alive. Sadly I think it is. Oh my gosh, it looks like it's like, put me out of my misery. I know. I feel sorry for this bird because it looks like the tip of its beak is really long, which it should be. You like the tips of their beak, I guess keep growing and you should have something hard for them to chew on so it files it down. But it's just grown into this like really long protrusion. Yeah vibes you

know where we were all like, I don't know about that. Yeah, yeah, poor cocky Bennett oh mannet. But you look a little old. He looks slightly like a plucked turkey. I don't mean to roast this very old bird, but I can't help it. You're roasting the bird. I'm roasting the bird. A well. I think that's where we'll end it today with me being super mean to like a geriatric bird. What are you gonna do? Well? Thank you so much for coming on the show in and discovering all the wonders of

flight with me. You gonna I mean yeah, you could check out my bird diaries just kidding, I would never I have a podcast called Ethnically Ambiguous on the I Heart Network. UM you can check that out. It's all about being a person of color in America. We interview a lot of great creators. Um. Also, yeah, I produced a bunch of podcasts like Daily Side Guys, Slass Culture Ristas. This is important, just you know, out here producing up

a storm. So uh and then I also uh co host a twitch stream every Tuesday night m p ST called Below It's called Deckheads. Chief stews about the Below Deck Bravo series, and we also talked about other Bravo shows, and we talked a little about the f one Netflix series and I host that with Molly Lambert. If you

want to play that out, please check it out. But you can also follow me at Anna host n A A N N A H O S S N I E H if you just want to keep up with what I'm up to and see what else I'm you know, producing and putting out and yeah, so you can follow me and check out that stuff. Check out all that stuff. You can find the podcast on the internet at Creature feature Pot on Instagram, at Creature feet Pot on Twitter. That's f E A T T very different. You can also if you want to ask me questions and me

email at Creature feature Pot at gmail dot com. I try to answer everyone's questions. Uh, there might be a slight lag between when you send it and when I answer it, but don't worry. I really do try to get to everyone's question and uh sometimes I will read it aloud on the show if I feel like I can get a good podcast out of it. So thank you so much for sending those in. And if you're enjoying the show and you leave a rating and review,

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