Birds Dance to Music: Harvard Grad Films Cockatoo Jamming to Backstreet Boys

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a Harvard graduate student's video of a cockatoo dancing to music by the Backstreet Boys, exploring the phenomenon of musicality in birds and related animal behaviors. Participants share personal anecdotes, links to related content, and express their fascination with the topic.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express joy and appreciation for the cockatoo's dancing, noting its uplifting effect.
  • There are references to other musical birds, particularly the lyre bird, with one participant sharing a link to footage and expressing amazement at its sounds.
  • A participant shares a personal story about a budgie that danced to music, highlighting the interaction between the bird and its environment.
  • Questions are raised about whether the cockatoo had previously observed humans dancing, suggesting a curiosity about the influence of human behavior on animal actions.
  • Links to external resources, including a peer-reviewed journal article discussing the cockatoo's dancing, are shared, indicating a scholarly interest in the topic.
  • Some participants note the sounds made by the lyre bird, with one mentioning an owl that mimicked a chainsaw, contributing to the discussion of animal mimicry.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express fascination with the topic, but there are no clear agreements or conclusions regarding the implications of the cockatoo's dancing or the broader questions it raises about animal behavior.

Contextual Notes

Some discussions touch on the limitations of understanding animal behavior, particularly regarding the influence of human actions on animals and the interpretation of their responses.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in animal behavior, ethology, and the intersection of music and nature may find this discussion engaging.

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Boogie birds have got the beat.


Speaking of musical birds -
 
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I've had a horrible day, that's just what I needed to pick my spirits up. Thanks for posting it.
 
Astronuc said:
Speaking of musical birds -


That lyre bird footage is absolutely amazing.
 
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I bought Party Girl for W as a birthday gift a few years ago. She was a budgie. (Ill-tempered little beast.) This was before we put my mother in the home, so Lucifer T. Cat was still with her. When we let the bird out of her cage, she'd perch on the CD storage rack or on top of a speaker and just bob her little head off to whatever was playing.
As much as we hated each other, we seemed to have a mutual enemy in George Jones. (I detest cowboy music.) No matter where we placed that CD in the rack, Party Girl would find it and **** on it. :biggrin:
 
Interesting, Fuzzy. I don't usually pay much attention to nature stuff, but that was pretty cool.
 
Absolutely fascinating! The sounds that lyre bird makes are almost unbelievable.

Astro, your second link is dead.
 
  • #10
This seems to me to raise the question : have they previously seen humans dancing ?
 
  • #11
humanino said:
This seems to me to raise the question : have they previously seen humans dancing ?

If he did, then he must have been watching nerds. :biggrin:
 
  • #12
I found some humans dancing ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYBNoFcvcWI

 
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  • #13
Ivan Seeking said:
Absolutely fascinating! The sounds that lyre bird makes are almost unbelievable.

Astro, your second link is dead.
I fixed the second link. It's about a lyre bird that mimics chainsaw, camera, music, DJ.

I've seen them in person. They are intereting creatures - and noisy too.


Last night I hear an owl making a sound like a chainsaw. I awoke from sleep thinking "who in the heck is using a chain saw at 3:30 in the morning".