"His drone has a dummy crow attached to the undercarriage"

December 10, 2021 12:04 PM

While all right-thinking people know that birds are real (these folks nonwithstanding) there are some birds that are not real, including a variety of robotic birds such as RoBird which looks like a raptor and can increase safety at airports by decreasing bird strikes and increase output at vineyards by decreasing grape-eating birds. Watch it flap. Other bird drones include the ProHawk Bird-X and, of course, MetaBird. [via]
posted by jessamyn (13 comments total)

I want to know what the crows who chased that RoBird around told to all the other crows later that day.
posted by Rinku at 12:18 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

> I want to know what the crows who chased that RoBird around told to all the other crows later that day.

I’d guess something along the lines of, “AWWWK CAA CAA CAAAAA!!!”, which was rebroadcast ad nauseam.
posted by not_on_display at 12:52 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

And the Bird-X Transonic Pro that recently went rogue terrorized and entire NYC neighborhood for days, as reported at great length in the Brooklyn Eagle (no relation).
posted by The Bellman at 1:24 PM on December 10, 2021 [7 favorites]

Wait, I'm sorry, I can't purchase this, the MetaBird isn't on a plate of beans.
posted by Katemonkey at 4:39 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wouldn’t a metabird be a bird made of birds that pointed at other birds?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:57 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Katemonkey: I know what you mean. The last tobacconist I purchased was scratched.
posted by hippybear at 9:33 PM on December 10, 2021

Wouldn’t a metabird be a bird made of birds that pointed at other birds?

Pretty sure it's one bird that points at other birds that a different group of birds it telling it to point at, each individually.
posted by hippybear at 9:34 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Bird-X Transonic Pro

Y'know with the discussion being about drones, and the word "Transonic" in the title, I was expecting something a lot more, umm, military adjacent...
posted by memetoclast at 3:07 AM on December 11, 2021

When I first flew a Wowwee Dragonfly
in my backyard, it was dive bombed by a red tailed hawk. The hawk came out of nowhere to swoop down on it, but fortunately changed its mind when it got close.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 6:04 AM on December 11, 2021

the Bird-X Transonic Pro that recently went rogue terrorized and entire NYC neighborhood for days

Wow that's super on topic and I hadn't even seen that story when I made this post. Thanks!
posted by jessamyn at 10:14 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like how the "watch it flap" video ends with the drone crashing nose-first into the grass, and at the same time, the controller's robot voice says "end flight!"
posted by moonmilk at 1:03 PM on December 11, 2021

Sort of orthogonal recently saw this bird inspired landing gear for drones.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:28 PM on December 11, 2021

I love the technology in these drones but, as I read through the various articles, it occurred to me that, if it were possible to completely deter birds from:
Airports
Vineyards and Farms
Marinas and Docks
Golf Courses
Corporate Grounds
Sports Complexes
(listed here)
where are the birds going to live? Obviously, this isn't a complete list of places birds live but, in urban spaces, excluding birds from those areas would leave very little habitat, given the spread of urban areas. The obvious impact of widespread adoption is the complete loss of birds over enormous areas.

A better invention would be something that deters humans in areas where birds live.
posted by dg at 2:08 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]