Great article! We've known for decades about smell, via pheromones
produced, being important to mating and other intra- [and possibly
inter-] specific interactions among vertebrates. This should not be
confused with "old wives' tale" about birds smelling that someone
touched a nest and then abandoned it, which [probably] never happens;
considering the acute eyesight of most birds, those that MAY leave a
nest after some "perceived predator" visited it, probably did so
because the "saw a threat" rather than smelled it -- Jim Greaves

At 01:01 PM 3/25/2010, tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:
>Folks,
>Follow the link to new research findings about birds' possible use of smell:
>
>http://futurity.org/science-technology/identifying-birds-by-sniff-not-song/
>
>Really fascinating!
>
>Cheers and good birding,
>Maureen E Ellis
>Burien, WA