Flight or Fright: Can a Bird Be Afraid of Heights?

One day in the city, I saw a pigeon, and he saw me. I watched as he took flight, and torqued my neck to follow his path high above the street to where he eventually perched himself on the shallow ledge of a tall building. It gave me the chills. "That's really high up there," I thought to myself, "but does a bird perceive height differently then I perceive a distance at ground level? Are they ever afraid of heights?"

Yes, in a way, they sometimes are, says Ashley Smith, chief executive of the Hawk Conservancy Trust, but it's extremely rare. Take Troy the Owl for example. Due to a fledglinghood injury, Troy's been under the care of humans for almost his entire life, and subsequently, hasn't the courage to fly any higher the 5'10" (the exact height of his handler). 

This is the case with many domesticated birds, especially parrots, who've either been clipped or have had some kind of traumatic experience, resulting in an awareness of the seriousness of gravity. 

But can this awareness be categorized as fear? A couple of studies suggest that in the case of humans, misperceptions of height have a relationship with our acrophobia, whether its the misjudgments that cause the fear or the other way around. Regardless, this fear is an evolutionary development which has kept us, the flightless masses, alive and respectful of the Earth's pull. To the majority of flightful birds, dealing with gravity is most-likely akin to our ascending and descending a hill... not scary, just something for which to exercise caution. 

or... another possibility...

Food for thought.