birds flying at a window usually at a moderately downward angle can reach speeds much higher than that of a mouse running at a wall with maybe 4 feet of runup and probably less than 3 feet of straightaway. Birds also have much more fragile bones and are usually a bit bigger than a mouse.
True, but I was responding to the general difficulty of small animals injuring themselves. I've buried many birds of all sizes over the years. Only one bird of prey - it left a tragically beautiful imprint on my window.
the smaller the mass of a creature (or of anything) the less force force that is exerted on them when they hit something. force is mass times acceleration and as you lower the mass the force lowers linearly with it. for 90% of creatures the statement of "the smaller it is the harder it is to hurt itself" is true. For birds and other creatures with low strength bones this is still very true just on a different scale. A smaller bird is much less likely to hurt itself than a vulture is flying at a window at the same speed.
square-cube law essentially, same reason an elephant will fucking explode if dropped from a building while an ant will be completely fine. Kurzgesagt did a good video on that
Yes, birds are a specific exception. It's like they're designed to kill themselves if they hit anything, and they often do because they can't understand glass.
Comments