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On the avian sense of smell.
Birkhead 2012 Chapter 5 Smell, highlights:
Audubon was wrong on this. Anatomically birds have conchae, a scroll-like roll of cartilage or bone, in a chamber at the base of the beak. The more complex the conchae, the greater the surface area for scent-detecting cells. Close by are the parts of the brain that interpret this data, the olfactory bulbs. Both structures vary between bird species. Bang and Cobb published a comparative study of 107 species in 1968, showing a 12-fold difference in relative sizes of olfactory lobes. Domestic fowl scored 15 on their index; the average songbird came in at 10 and the Kiwi at 34. The link between relative size and olfactory ability was verified in the 1990s. The sense of smell is in general better developed in nocturnal and crepuscular species, but it's also very important for wanderers of the open ocean like albatross.
Ackerman The genius of birds 2016:266-72, highlights:
The olfactory bulb is an ancient part of the brain devoted to the sense of smell and found universally in vertebrates. It varies in size across animals in the same order, the same class, or the same family. This is true for birds. Since the 1960s nearly every species of bird tested has demonstrated some olfactory talent. Even songbirds (near the bottom of the scale) use smell: blue tits won't enter a nest box laced with the scent of a weasel. Zebra finches use smell to identify relatives and thus avoid inbreeding.
Ackerman Bird Way Chapter 4 The scent of sustenance, highlights:
A turkey vulture has 3 times as many mitral cells (specialist neurons) as a rabbit or cat, and can detect molecules from decaying flesh in concentrations as low as a few parts per billion. European starlings select aromatic herbs to line their nests and act as fumigants to protect nestlings. Puffins can find their way home by smell alone from nearly 500 miles away. Seabirds consume plastics and other trash because those plastics emit the same chemical scent (dimethyl sulfide) as phytoplankton generate when consumed by krill, and which the birds hone in on to find their food at sea. Ackerman calls such plastics a kind of olfactory booby trap for seabirds.
Birkhead 2012 Chapter 5 Smell, highlights:
Audubon was wrong on this. Anatomically birds have conchae, a scroll-like roll of cartilage or bone, in a chamber at the base of the beak. The more complex the conchae, the greater the surface area for scent-detecting cells. Close by are the parts of the brain that interpret this data, the olfactory bulbs. Both structures vary between bird species. Bang and Cobb published a comparative study of 107 species in 1968, showing a 12-fold difference in relative sizes of olfactory lobes. Domestic fowl scored 15 on their index; the average songbird came in at 10 and the Kiwi at 34. The link between relative size and olfactory ability was verified in the 1990s. The sense of smell is in general better developed in nocturnal and crepuscular species, but it's also very important for wanderers of the open ocean like albatross.
Ackerman The genius of birds 2016:266-72, highlights:
The olfactory bulb is an ancient part of the brain devoted to the sense of smell and found universally in vertebrates. It varies in size across animals in the same order, the same class, or the same family. This is true for birds. Since the 1960s nearly every species of bird tested has demonstrated some olfactory talent. Even songbirds (near the bottom of the scale) use smell: blue tits won't enter a nest box laced with the scent of a weasel. Zebra finches use smell to identify relatives and thus avoid inbreeding.
Ackerman Bird Way Chapter 4 The scent of sustenance, highlights:
A turkey vulture has 3 times as many mitral cells (specialist neurons) as a rabbit or cat, and can detect molecules from decaying flesh in concentrations as low as a few parts per billion. European starlings select aromatic herbs to line their nests and act as fumigants to protect nestlings. Puffins can find their way home by smell alone from nearly 500 miles away. Seabirds consume plastics and other trash because those plastics emit the same chemical scent (dimethyl sulfide) as phytoplankton generate when consumed by krill, and which the birds hone in on to find their food at sea. Ackerman calls such plastics a kind of olfactory booby trap for seabirds.
