I used to hang out with behavioral psychology grad students (BF Skinner types) who did a lot of research with pigeons. They transported the birds head-down in juice pitchers with air holes punched at the bottom; they just held the pitcher up to the cage and the bird would jump into it, sometimes so hard they would knock themselves out. They loved that lever-pressing shit - it helped that they were kept at 80% of their normal food intake to maximize the reinforcing effect of the pellets.
Well, the net result was that their regularly-scheduled food plus the food received during conditioning sessions equalled an adequate or “normal” diet. Most of these experiments were very long-term and having the birds starve to death during them is counterproductive. And certainly their food intake was more reliable than in the wild.
There are worse fates for birds in human hands than being put in a Skinner box.
Lol… yeah. You can train birds to do just about anything. well. with in reason.
The socks would help reduce stress after getting caught in the nets. (big sagging things that they’d fly into and get caught in.) but the ornithologist was going after song birds. I think the largest thing we saw trapped was a cardinal. You’d check it fairly regularly just walking a line and stuffing them in socks. Then into a lunch pail. (IIRC the pail had bob ross painting on it. if that gives you an idea of his manner.)
ounce for ounce, the chickadees were the biggest fighters. I’m not sure they even weighed an ounce but those needle-beaks hurt when they decided to do an impression of Woody the Woodpecker on your knuckle
I used to hang out with behavioral psychology grad students (BF Skinner types) who did a lot of research with pigeons. They transported the birds head-down in juice pitchers with air holes punched at the bottom; they just held the pitcher up to the cage and the bird would jump into it, sometimes so hard they would knock themselves out. They loved that lever-pressing shit - it helped that they were kept at 80% of their normal food intake to maximize the reinforcing effect of the pellets.
So they were starving the birds? Kinda messed up.
Well, the net result was that their regularly-scheduled food plus the food received during conditioning sessions equalled an adequate or “normal” diet. Most of these experiments were very long-term and having the birds starve to death during them is counterproductive. And certainly their food intake was more reliable than in the wild.
There are worse fates for birds in human hands than being put in a Skinner box.
Lol… yeah. You can train birds to do just about anything. well. with in reason.
The socks would help reduce stress after getting caught in the nets. (big sagging things that they’d fly into and get caught in.) but the ornithologist was going after song birds. I think the largest thing we saw trapped was a cardinal. You’d check it fairly regularly just walking a line and stuffing them in socks. Then into a lunch pail. (IIRC the pail had bob ross painting on it. if that gives you an idea of his manner.)
ounce for ounce, the chickadees were the biggest fighters. I’m not sure they even weighed an ounce but those needle-beaks hurt when they decided to do an impression of Woody the Woodpecker on your knuckle