stevesjk wrote:And yet there are bird owners who Wouldnt know the solar schedule if it slapped them in the face and they never had a minutes trouble over many years. You'd think an exact science would provide exact results.
The science behind photoperiodism does have exact results, Steve, as proven over and over by scientific studies. It's not as if there is any doubt at all that birds are, indeed, photoperiodic - this has been an accepted scientific fact for many, many years. Poultry breeders use the knowledge all the time and canary breeders have known about how light affects their breeding seasons even before I started keeping them - and we are talking over 50 years! I did a little research and found some dates for you. The first discovery was done in 1911 but it was in 1944 that they first discovered avian encephalic photoreceptors so, as you can see, it's an 'old' fact among people in the know even if, unfortunately for pet birds, there are still a lot of people who are ignorant about it. As to people's comments on whether their birds are doing OK or not, you will have to excuse my skepticism on the accuracy of their opinions. I have found that people are particularly keen on lying online even when they are honest people 'in person'
Everybody wants to look good and appear as a good bird owner even when they know, deep inside, that they are not. I don't blame them. We all like to 'look good' to other people but it's really not helpful to the poor birds suffering every day from overly grown gonads, is it? But, even when people don't really lie, they might not be reading their bird correctly. It's real hard with birds... I am no expert but I have a bit of experience and I worry all the time about not reading them correctly when it comes to health matters! Sheesh, even avian vets can't do it! They need all kinds of tests and even then they don't know what the problem is or how to fix it half the time!