Each day brings something new and fascinating to be learned from our baby Robin observations :)
Today when we were reviewing photos that I had quickly snapped while mama was away revealed that our baby birds have ears! I know, of course they have ears but we've never seen one
before :) Actually most of us have probably never seen a bird's ear since they don't have outer ear lobes like we do. Their ears are hidden behind special feathers called 'auricular feathers' which protect the ear opening, reflect sounds and also funnel sounds towards the opening.
Can you think of one very important reason why a bird would want its ears hidden behind feathers? To cut down on wind noise! Think of the last time it was super windy outside while you were playing, do you remember what it sounded like? Probably quite noisy with the wind whistling and blowing loudly and swirling in and around your ear lobes making it hard to hear other noises around you. Well those special 'auricular feathers' over a Robin's ears reflect the noise from the wind while still letting other sounds around them enter their ears even while the wind is blowing!
Another neat fact about bird ears is that they differ in size and are quite often placed asymmetrically or not in the exact same place on either side of their head. Large birds that don't fly usually have very large ear openings without feathers for good hearing while birds that tend to go underwater frequently have small ear openings that in some cases can close off when going underwater. The unequal positioning of a birds ears is so that they can detect sounds first by one ear and then another to help them locate the direction of sound more easily :)
Absolutely marvelous !!!
Your chronicle of the Robins nesting and raising their young is fantastic and I enjoyed it so very much. Your articles on the tadpoles and butterflies are wonderful also. - Am so glad to find others like you that are avid about birds and nature.
God bless, G G
