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So I have a friend of mine with a redneck parrot. I noticed even if I move the bird in any direction his head remains in a fixed position.

Is this a common characteristics of all the birds or only in parrot family.?

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    this is common in birds they need to see where they are flying,have you seen the head of cats when they are running,that is just as impressive!
    – trond hansen
    Feb 14 '18 at 11:30
  • Thanks @Henders. They sure are impressive looking at the nature their head movements trond hansen
    – Java_User
    Feb 14 '18 at 12:19
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enter image description here

Its not just parrots.

Or Chickens

And pigeons bob their heads for the same reasons - unlike humans, who adjust their eyes to stabilise their vision, birds shift their heads - or as the paper I'm looking at says

This has led to the view that the pigeon’s head-bobbing is an optokinetic response to stabilize the retinal image during the hold phase

Here's a pretty good article on the topic that I vaguely referenced

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  • Thanks @Journeyman Geek. It's amazing to see how nature has its own stabilization unit for our feather friends.
    – Java_User
    Feb 14 '18 at 12:21
  • and that ticks off another thing in my "strange things I wish I I could use in an answer" list.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Feb 14 '18 at 12:31

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