A new study, based on user preferences, found that the podargo appears to be the most loved bird on Instagram
Science names the most social bird in the world. A new study, based on user preferences, found that the podargo (a bizarre owl-like limping bird) appears to be the most appreciated and loved on Instagram.
Which bird is the most successful on Instagram? Science now has an answer. In a recently published study, German researchers analyzed more than 27.000 bird photos posted on the popular social media platform to determine which bird was the most aesthetically pleasing on Instagram.
Surprisingly, the winner turned out to be the podargo, a bizarre nocturnal bird that lives in Southeast Asia and Australia. It seems to be a question of justice, as this somewhat peculiar-looking nocturnal bird was once accused of being 'the ugliest bird in the world'.
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“I am convinced that part of the human aesthetic experience comes out of objective characteristics of the stimulus,” says Katja Thömmes, who led the bizarre research. "In the domain of visual sensations, there are some colors and shapes that influence our perception more than others."
The researchers then analyzed which colors attracted the most followers, and found that photos with blue and red birds scored higher. Behind the podargo, the birds that scored the most points were the colored pigeons, the turaco, the hoopoe and the blue wren.
But why did the podargo win the award? It is not the image of beauty, this often disheveled little bird with bright yellow eyes and a broad beak. Even its scientific name, Podargus strigoides, betrays a feeling of contempt towards it: it derives in fact from the Latin word for owl (strigoides) and from the Greek word for gout (podargus).
This is because the bird is often mistaken for an owl and when it walks it moves like an old man with gout. It would therefore seem that the podargo is an almost humanized animal. Perhaps it was precisely this bizarre aspect of it that helped the podargo to climb the ranks of the social competition.
Unfortunately, many of the Instagram photos featuring this cute little animal were taken in zoos, where it lives in a captive condition. It would be nice if, in addition to admiring it on social networks, we could also see it flying free in nature.
Fonte: SageJournals
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