It suggests to me that maybe these scientists have too much time on their hands. There are so many variables in this. Maybe this is a case of generating
too much data will find the random case of something looking significant, when it isn’t.
I (long ago) used the same analysis to measure the flight distance hypothesis as a difference between House Sparrows and Tree Sparrows. It is actually
hard to measure this. So I wonder about biases in collecting measurements. But instead I found their behaviour, rather than distance, is different.
Philip
From: Canberrabirds
On Behalf Of davros--- via Canberrabirds
Sent: Friday, 23 October, 2026 11:46 AM
To: 'calyptorhynchus' <>; 'Canberrabirds list' <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Birds are more afraid of women than men. Scientists have no idea why
Interesting hypothesis. What do the data indicate about big men vs small men, or adults vs children etc?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/10/261021231250.htm#
This study showed that urban European birds let men get closer to them than women.
The researchers didn't supply a hypothesis to explain this. However I have a theory: I think that birds have an instinct that the smaller the terrestrial predator the more dangerous, because they can move faster. For
example a weasel can move faster than a cat, a cat faster than a fox, a fox faster than a human. And women are typically smaller than men.
Any other ideas?
--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
Make nature great again.
