On the Evolution of Camouflage in Urban Environments

One of my offices is in the Geozentrum in the Goethe University here in Frankfurt. This morning this was on the side of the building:
Today's Mystery Bird
I only saw it because it was flapping about a bit in the wind. If you can’t ID it, then here’s a cropped photo:

Fuck me it's cold up here
It’s amazingly well camouflaged. I’m sure any poor squirrel that was wandering up the wall wouldn’t see it either. Mind you, the squirrels here are red too, so perhaps they’re equally hidden. In fact, there might even be one in that first photo.

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5 Responses to On the Evolution of Camouflage in Urban Environments

  1. Cath@VWXYNot? says:

    Very cool!

    Two jobs ago, a Cooper’s Hawk took up residence outside my office window, in the back alley behind my building. “Super Duper Cooper” became quite the celebrity; people would come and visit my office just to see him (or her) hanging out or – occasionally – hunting pigeons. He left us for a few weeks, then returned for a few weeks, then left for good… or maybe he’s out there still, just camouflaged as a piece of grey concrete…

    *if he’s appeared a couple of years later I would of course have named him Sheldon

    • Bob O'H says:

      A few years earlier, I guess it would have been Agent Cooper. Which might explain its disappearance.

  2. aeon says:

    Could you pass that cestrel a note to get over to the new biology building to scare of them poor winged buggers hitting the windows every now and then?

    (Context: don’t know if this has been resolved by now, but AFAIK the architect has verboten the faculty to put something in the windows to scare birds off. I remember reading in of the faculty meeting protocols they hired a falconer to scare of birds until they find a permanent solution. Former colleagues have been bragging about this architect(‘s) issues a lot.)

    • Bob O'H says:

      I’ll try to have a word, but I’m worried it might fly into the windows itself.

      Architects can be weird about this sort of stuff. It’s as if they don’t realise their buildings are going to be used.

  3. rpg says:

    That is something special. Well spotted, Bob.

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