... a sound proof room wired with microphones. And the winner for best performance in the silent lift category is...: (no, it`s not Tom Cruise)

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

Wow! That is freaky. Very cool. Guess those mice really don't know it's coming.

Edited August 2, 20205 yr by Chock

Absolutely fascinating video, I was transfixed watching her. Thanks for posting it. Off to hunt down the rest of the series now(noisily).

Great video, and as an amateur photographer I'm amazed by how skilled people are when filming stuff like that. Mesmerising stuff! On another note; birds are fascinating creatures. For a brief period me and my fiance was caring for a Cockatoo and that bird (a female) absolutely worshipped me. Coming home from work the bird would freak out yelling and screaming and performing the cutest dance before climbing up and sitting down on my shoulder where she would remain for the remainder of the day. I wanted to adopt her but alas, that was not possible as the love the crazy bird had for me she did not have for the other female in the house.. 😉

 

Very cool! The details in biological adaptation!

The owl is a real killer, the A10 of the birds!

Silent but deadly...  

Here's our recent scientific understanding of owl's silent flight. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5206597/  We can approximately engineer some of the flight features of owls into the designs of our flying machines; but we're no where near bio-engineering silent flight like nature has done it. 

That barn owl sure is a pretty little thing, ain't she?!

  

As a former bird photographer and volunteer at our local wildlife refuge I can tell you owls are the premier hunters of the avian world.  Another one that displays stealth is the Northern Harrier.  They fly nape of earth while hunting and catch their prey  unawares.  I have observed them approach a pond from behind a hill, follow the slope up and over and be on a flock of ducks before they realize it.

Other birds of prey like the hawks and eagles and falcons hover in the air riding thermals until they spot something and then zoom down on it.  I've observed a lot of red-tail hawks, very common in this area, behaving in that manner.

Two other local raptors I've observed, the Mississippi Kite and the smallest of the raptors, the American Kestral, are mainly insect eaters.

The video was especially interesting.  My favorite bird is the burrowing owl.  They live in abandoned prairie dog tunnels.  I'd love to have one as a pet.  But in the United States it is illegal to even own a raptor feather.  

Noel

Edited August 3, 20205 yr by birdguy

8 hours ago, Pat Mussotte said:

The owl is a real killer, the A10 of the birds!

And compliant with the new Stage V noise limits!

Thank you for that video.  So very interesting. Owls are deadly effective hunters!

Stan

I'd be more interested in an aircraft developed on hummingbird dynamics.

So, now we just need to get owl technology into helicopters, with a bit of hummingbird thrown into the mix.

It's quite rural where I live so we see the occasional Barn Owl and several bats when it's dusk. 

Nice Youtube find! CYXR.