I've often wondered if birds foraging near runways at large airports exhibit
some degree of deafness. The noise from the engines of a plane taxiing along
the runway is extremely loud.
As for Australia's loudest bird - my nomination would be the Channel-billed
Cuckoo.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Andrew Taylor
Sent: Monday, 9 March 2015 8:19 AM
To: Bob Gosford
Cc: Birding-Aus
Subject: Loudest bird?
On Sun, Mar 08, 2015 at 08:17:24PM +0930, Bob Gosford wrote:
> Steve - @Doctor_Dave Watson over at Twitter says "noisy scrub birds
> also ear-splitting at close range--a mate reckons they're so loud
> because they're deaf because they're so loud!" ... which opens another
> question - why don't loud birds go deaf?
An involuntary contraction of muscles in their ear reduces their sensitivity
when they call - something similar happens in mammal ears including humans.
Bird inner ears are also more resistant to damage from loud noises than
mammals and regenerate if damaged.
Andrew
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