Stop Projecting Joy on Birds. Flight Is Just Peer Pressure.
A new study on galahs shatters the comforting illusion that birds fly for the sheer joy of it. What looks like freedom in the sky might actually be a survival-driven response to social conformity, dominance hierarchies, and peer pressure. It’s time we stop projecting human emotions onto animals and start respecting the complex, often stressful social machinery that actually drives their behavior.