[michaelmrose]

Why would it have evolved a response to communicate to a predator species that one of the predators living in a dwelling is going to die in a fashion that would expose itself to a large chance of becoming prey.

Here is a far simpler explanation. Our brains are evolved to find patterns even when they aren't there. Look how weak the correlation is. His family simply discarded all the times the correlation failed to apply and remembered the one time the bird cried not on the day his grandfather died but merely that same year.

[thisCtx]

I think I confused which feature they were talking about.

It’s far fetched maybe but dogs can smell Parkinson’s and cancer before the person develops medically detectable symptoms. So maybe not so far fetched.

Doesn’t have to be a pet. Doesn’t detect when the person will DIE of cancer, yet it shows up later.

Birds have been shown to return to the same locations if they fit their needs. Perhaps it was indicating an illness.

Far fetched but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Statistics are not science. Science requires real world evidence and other animals offer at least some evidence they can detect fatal illness in advance.

[michaelmrose]

Dogs are established to have an acute sense of smell along with a lifestyle where they live in close proximity to human beings and communicate with them.

Most birds and pheasants in particular have don't have as well developed a sense of smell as you do and aren't liable to be within 100 yards of people for long.

Even if they could smell impending disease why would they particularly seek out a high place to announce this and how on earth would you distinguish this from a call which announced it's desire to mate or warning about predators including yourself.

Birds make noise all the time. They can't smell you from far away ergo they can't smell impending death. It's like an ink blot test any meaning you are finding is smuggled in by you.

[thisCtx]

Dogs and smell were one example. Maybe it’s sight related. Maybe it’s electromagnetic field sensitivity.

I’m not seeking meaning, I’m seeking falsifiable experiment to conclusively rule out the possibility.

[michaelmrose]

Maybe it was communicating with its own kind?

[thisCtx]

Oh I just remembered neuroscience has revealed we “sync” brainwaves just being in a room with another. We can take on others processing patterns.

No reason to assume similar can’t occur between species.

Perhaps the bird “read his mind” in such a way as to intuit something was breaking.

Perhaps applying simple cost/benefit analysis is too reductionist to reach a conclusion?

[thisCtx]

Yep, maybe. This is an endlessly circular discussion without falsifiable experiment.

Which is my whole point.

You have fun falling into the abyss. I’m gonna go see what reality is made of.

[hisnameismanuel]

Seems to me like this story itself is an inkblot test for HN