{"id":808,"date":"2016-11-25T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T11:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/natgeokids.com?p=808"},"modified":"2017-02-20T16:21:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T16:21:48","slug":"scientists-discover-tap-dancing-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/ie\/discover\/animals\/birds\/scientists-discover-tap-dancing-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover birdie tap dance that’s invisible to the naked eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

These little songbirds do more than just sing to attract a mate \u2013 they tap dance, too!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"scientists<\/a><\/p>\n

Tap-dancing birds!<\/h1>\n

Scientists have discovered that male and female cordon bleu birds<\/strong>, from eastern Africa<\/strong>, show off during courtship<\/strong> by performing a tap dance routine<\/strong> on their perch.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, the finches\u2019 foot-tapping antics are so speedy that they\u2019re invisible to the naked eye<\/strong> \u2013 experts only noticed the fancy footwork while watching high-speed video, er,\u00a0foot<\/em>age.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The team at Hokkaido University<\/strong> in Japan<\/strong>, partnered up eight male and eight female finches into pairs, before hitting the record button. Dr<\/strong>\u00a0Masayo\u00a0Soma<\/strong>, who headed up the research, said that capturing the footwork on film wasn’t as simple as she’d expected: “These birds are very choosy, and they only perform courtship displays to the individuals they like!”<\/p>\n

This meant that the team ended up with over 200-hours<\/strong> worth of film to watch!<\/p>\n

The tiny movements are so rapid, that a single step will last for just six frames<\/strong> of high-speed video – that’s 20 milliseconds<\/strong> or 0.02 seconds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And dancing isn’t the only thing these birds use to impress a mate, they’ll also hold a piece of nesting material in their beaks, tilt their heads back, bob up and down and sing – all while tapping their feet. And if that<\/em> doesn’t get you a date we don”t know what will!<\/p>\n

So far, only red-cheeked and blue-capped cordon bleus are known to perform this birdie boogie –\u00a0cool!<\/p>\n

Check out the video below and see if you can spot the birds’ tiny hopping movements. Watch out, though – blink and you’ll miss them!<\/p>\n

Watch the birdie boogie!<\/h1>\n
\n
http:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/birds-tap-dancing.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Video credit: Nao Ota, Manfred Gahr, Masayo Soma. (2015)<\/h6>\n

What do you make of this cool new behaviour? Let us know by leaving a comment below.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These little songbirds do more than just sing to attract a mate \u2013 they tap dance, too! Tap-dancing birds! Scientists have discovered that male and female cordon bleu birds, from eastern Africa, show off during courtship by performing a tap dance routine on their perch. Incredibly, the finches\u2019 foot-tapping antics are so speedy that they\u2019re … Continue reading Scientists discover birdie tap dance that’s invisible to the naked eye<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,43],"tags":[277,852,289],"christmas-category":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-video","tag-birds","tag-research","tag-scientists","countries-australia","countries-ireland","countries-new-zealand","countries-south-africa","countries-united-kingdom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nScientists discover birdie tap dance that's invisible to the naked eye - National Geographic Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientists discover birds tap dancing in courtship display: Slowed-down video footage has revealed lightning speed foot movements invisible to the naked eye\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists discover birdie tap dance that's invisible to the naked eye - 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