All language subtitles for M M S01E05 Birds Prefer Red Cars 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-FLUX_track4_[eng]

-All right. You guys ready?
-[Tory] I'm so excited.

We just scared
some birds away.

[Faye] Think they're close
to the silver hood.

-Okay, we got some more
action over here.
-Look at this.

[Tory] We got one, two,

three, four, five, six.

-[Bisi] Oh, wow.
-[Faye] Okay, all right.

[Bisi] Oh, they love
this white one.

You know what's
cool about this

is we're actually getting

-some data.
-[Faye] Oh, yeah.

I mean, this is our control.
We've lured them here,
on purpose.

And they have
the ability to poop
anywhere they desire.

-All right.
-And it's sort of even.

Looks like
you got a lot of hit.

-Yeah, we got a lot over here.
-We're gonna be here a while.

[opening theme music playing]

-Yes!
-Yeah!

[narrator] Meet the team.

[whooping]

There's a potential that
I could get electrocuted.

[explosion]

[narrator] With
the mechanical expertise...

More oxygen, more fuel.
That makes more power.

[narrator] to test
all things automotive.

[Bisi] It's almost
like surgery.

If I make a mistake
we'll blow up the engine.

[narrator] This is
Motor MythBusters...

[Faye] This is our job!

[narrator] where science

meets the streets.

[bird squawking]

So, if there's anything
that I'm really
very well known for,

other than my love of Supras,

um, is my love of birds.

I'm a total
crazy chicken lady.

I have six chickens at home.

So, I'm not just driving
around with
these birds for fun.

I actually have a myth
planned for these guys.

Hey, guys.

-Check out my birds.
-Hey.

-What?
-Oh!

-Oh, my gosh.
-Aren't they adorable?

-[Tory] Are they lovebirds?
-[Faye] They are.

[Tory] They look
like they're in love.

Well, I think that the shop
needed some pets.

-They are so beautiful.
-[Faye laughing]

-They look unreal.
-No, no, no.

Actually, I have a myth
for you guys.

There's a study done
out of the UK that shows

that birds tend to poop
on red cars most.

I don't believe that at all.

I've heard that people
who drive red cars
get more tickets,

but I've never heard
birds poop more on red cars.

Where does this data
come from?

So, in the study,
over eleven hundred
cars participated,

five different cities,
over a period of two days.

And, of the cars
that were pooped on,

eighteen percent
of the red cars
got pooped on.

Yeah.

Fourteen percent of the blue
cars got pooped on,

eleven percent of the black
cars got pooped on,

seven percent of the white
cars got pooped on

and a three percent
of the silverish,

greyish cars got pooped on.

So, who came up
with this study?

-Yeah.
-That's the problem.

It was a self-reported study.

So, they called people
and asked them,

how often birds pooped
on their cars

and then what color
cars they had.

So, what's the myth here?

That birds defecate more
on red cars

-than anything else? Oh.
-Exactly.

You know though,
before we go any further

maybe we should
come up with
an experiment ourselves

to see what color
birds poop on more.

You know, I concur.

We have to find a place
where we can have
a variety of cars

with lots of different colors.

-Maybe a car lot.
-That works.

[Bisi] At least
that may give us

some preliminary data
on bird pooping habits.

Well, I already, kind of,

partially started
this test on my own

and, uh, my blue car,
got crapped on this morning.

-Huh.
-Huh.

[Tory] We're down here
looking at used cars

'cause I'm gonna buy
a used car.

No. Actually,
Bisi and I thought
it might be a good idea

to come to a place where cars
have been parked for a while.

We're gonna look
at different colors of cars,

see if birds
have pooped on them,

and take our data.

Now I know
what you're thinking

car lots always
wash their cars every day.

But, we talked to the owners
and they've agreed

to not wash the cars
until we're done
with our experiment.

So, here's a yellow car,

tiny little bit of poop.

I don't see any on this guy.

-Do you?
-[Bisi] Nah.

[gasps]

-Hey, look at that.
-There is one.

Nice runny one, too.

That's... [laughs]

[narrator] So,
why this car lot?

Well, the collection
of various colored vehicles

will provide Tory and Bisi

with ideas on how to conduct
their own experiment.

Like, how and where
to place the targets

to determine accurate
defecation data.

[Tory] I mean,
the myth is all about

red cars getting
pooped on more, right?

So, theoretically,

this car should be covered
in bird poop

and it's not.

Okay, there is a tiny little
bit of bird poop.

[Bisi] That's true.

-So, mark that one down.
-[Bisi] Yeah.

Hey. [chuckles]

-[Bisi] Oh.
-This one,

-[laughs] has got nailed.
-That one has a lot.

[Bisi] But it's under a tree.

[Tory] I know.

-Okay, well, great truck,
-Yep.

destroyed.

Birds destroyed it.

You know,
this may not have
good evidence for us

because we don't know
if there's an influence

of having a place to perch
on defecation happening.

I mean, I, uh,
hundred percent agree

that no matter
what color the car is

if you put something
to perch over it

the birds are gonna poop
on that car
more than the others.

You know, what's interesting
as we analyze

what we observed here
on the lot.

We had more white cars
here on the lot
than any other vehicle.

-[Tory] Right.
-Nineteen.

[Bisi] And three had matter.

-About 15 percent.
-[Tory] Fifteen percent.

[Bisi] Which
is pretty interesting.

[Tory] And the red,

the fact
that there's only four cars

and half of them

-got crapped on.
-[Bisi] Yeah. Mm-hm.

So, you're saying
that there's some
plausibility to this myth.

-It's quite possible.
-This is interesting.

[Bisi] The findings
Tory and I got

gave this myth
some validation.

[narrator] Meanwhile,
Faye is getting

the lowdown
from an ornithologist

on exactly how birds
see colors.

[Faye] Hi. Oh, my gosh.

I'm so glad
you could come here today.

Because I have
[exhales] this very
pressing question

-I'm trying to figure out.
-Okay.

Do birds poop more

on [clicks tongue] red cars?

What you think about this?

In all honesty,
I'm a little skeptical

-of the myth. You know?
-Okay.

-So, birds are attracted
to certain colors.
-It's all right.

-Okay.
-So, that is true.

Birds actually see
more colors.

We're actually missing

colors that birds can see.

So, as humans, we have
three cones in our eyes.

And these cones are basically
what perceives light

and sends that
signal to our brain
that we turn into color.

But birds,
they have another cone
in the UV space.

And so, birds actually have

a whole nother dimension
of color that we can't see.

Whoa. All right.

I see you brought like,
all this equipment.

What is this?

So this is, um,
some of the equipment
that I use

to measure bird color,

called reflectance
spectrophotometer.

Light goes through this box,

through the fiber optic cable.
I point it at something,

I mean,
usually I'm pointing
it at bird feathers.

We're actually gonna see
how is light reflecting
off of these feathers.

And then, I can
actually put that

through a model
of avian vision.

-Okay, so,
this is car paint.
-Yeah.

-Let's see how it looks
on our little
-Yeah.

-reflectance--
-[Allison] Spectrophotometer.

Let's start with black
which is pretty much
a flat curve

'cause, you know, black
doesn't really have color.

This is showing me
all the stuff that i can't see

that other birds can see.

[Allison] That's right.
I'm curious about
this purple.

Me too. Wow. I'm seeing
quite a bit in the range
that I can't see.

[Allison] Yeah.
So, there's definitely

-some UV color in this purple.
-A lot of action.

[Faye] Okay.

[Allison] Silver, though,

is kind of, highly reflective
across the board.

And, you know, this is gonna
be very mirror-like.

So, the more mirror-like
a car is,

that is definitely
gonna attract birds.

Especially, you know,
certain times of year

when the males
are trying to like,
fight off the other males.

They're gonna try
and get that male away.

-Really?
-I would.

'Cause this one
ranked the lowest

in the, in the study.
Fascinating.

Red, yeah, this red
has very little UV.

But, some birds
are attractive to red,

typically, birds
that feed on things
like flowers and berries.

Given everything
that we've just

-been talking about,
-Yeah.

what are the birds
I'm gonna find
around this area

that are most prevalent
and also, um, poop the most?

[Allison] One of them
is this Western Gull.

So, you see a lot of them
at the beach

-but also in parking lots
and things like that.
-Mm-hm.

We've got this,
we call them rock pigeon
as their official name

that you see in the park.

We have American crow

and then this guy over here
is an European starling.

These love sitting on, like,
telephone wires.

So, you can imagine
that these are gonna be
over cars quite a lot.

Absolutely. Telephone wires.

All right.
With all this information

that you presented me with,
if you were to guess

which one of these colors
they might poop on the most.

My guess is gonna be
it's more about the reflection

than about being attracted
to one particular color
versus another.

You know, think about like,

a puppy seeing itself
in the mirror

-and trying to play with it.
-Interesting.

So, you think that
for the sake of the study

can birds actually, like,

control when they,
you know, poop?

They definitely do have
some control, you know.

They don't wanna poop
in their nest.

You don't wanna poop
in your house, right?

-Yeah.
-And they poop
to defend themselves

against other predators
or things like that.

But, you know,
one thing, difference

between our poop
and bird poop
is only one thing.

There's no separate
pee and poop.

It's all mixed in.

Their poop is,
is pretty acidic.

This is something
that should be of concern
for car paint.

Well, thank you
so much for your time.

I feel like I learned how
I'm gonna set up the study.

Glad to do it.

[Faye] I just learned a ton
about how birds see
light and color.

I've gotta go digest this
and really figure out a way
with the team

to set up the study
in a way that's actually
gonna be effective.

That is good.

-All right, boys.
What do you got going on?
-Hey.

-I like your drawing.
-Thank you.

It is interesting. What--

I wanted
to get the point across.

Something emanating
from the rear.

-That's poop. Yeah.
-Oh.

Thinking of crap.

I think we need to come up
with our own test

to see whether or not
this data's true.

Yeah. We're gonna have to.
This is all on us.

I think we should
probably find
a part of a vehicle

that has the most real estate.

-Like a hood.
-Like a hood.

Hm. Whole bunch of hoods.

Yeah, we get a bunch of hoods
and then paint them
different colors.

Well, but wait, okay.

First of all,
we gotta figure out
how many colors we need.

Second of all,
we have to figure out

how the heck
do we get any birds
to this area to begin with.

Right, so the study
was red, blue, white,

-Green.
-black, silver.

I say we can go further,
make a couple of them
just wild.

Maybe camo on one.

I'm all about the camo.

-Rainbow, I like that.
-Rainbow.

All right. So, just in case,

[softly] they don't care
at all.

-That's true.
-Can I throw in purple?

'Cause purple's
my favorite color.

-Purple. Throw in purple.
-Yeah, okay.

We're gonna get 11 hoods.

-Eleven hoods, okay.
-[Faye] Yep.

-All right.
-And how do we
space these out

so that they could
give us some decent data?

What if we just lay them
out on a grid?

-Hm.
-Ah.

How much space
do we want in between?

I mean, do we,
like, four to six feet?

-'Cause I feel like...
-Yeah.

It's gotta be something.

-It's a worthy
and substantial space.
-Okay.

-Yeah.
-Yes. So, how far up

are we gonna putting
our "telephone poles."

-Uh, I would say,
-"Telephone wires."

maybe we do
like, six feet above.

Oh, that's pretty decent.

-Right, so it's not too high,
it's not too low.
-Right.

[Bisi] Maybe a couple
across each.

Yeah, where they wanna
land and poop.

And then maybe we could
put some line above

-each of the hoods.
-I like that.

So, they can defecate
in comfort.

And then they can land.

-They have a place to land.
-Yeah, of course.

-This is such
a ridiculous experiment.
-I know.

-But I'm--
-So much thought into it.

We're thinking
really hard about this.

We're really excited
about this one.

[machine whirring]

All right.
We have our plan now
for the bird poop experiment.

Now, Bisi and Faye
are working on the hoods.

I need to build
some telephone lines.

Because we have our hoods
so close together,

we're not gonna
be able to find
telephone poles that close.

So, I need to make my own
and then this

will give the birds
something to land on.

And then we'll be able to see

which color
they prefer to poop on.

[narrator] So next
they have to prep

and paint a bunch of colored
poop landing pads

for their feathered friends.

[Bisi] I'm about to sand
this hood with 220 grit

sandpaper
on this beautiful wheel

using compressed air
as my accomplice.

And the reason
why I'm doing this

is to get the paint to adhere
to the hood.

[Faye] I'm not gonna
paint my hood.

I'm gonna vinyl wrap it
in camo.

Oh, I'm not good at this.
[laughs]

And, this hood is done.

We've got 11 hoods,
all freshly painted

and ready to be thrown
to the birds.

[eagle screeching]

[Bisi] So, now we have this
great lot.

It's very conducive
for what we're trying to do.

I think we should

place cinder blocks
on the ground first.

-Mm-hm. Yeah.
-Then the hood,

secure the hoods
to those blocks,

and on each end
put those crazy devices

-that Tory built.
-[Faye laughs]

Wind some wire across
and we should be good.

So, what do you say we just

-put them out randomly.
-Yeah.

And then, we're not favoring

one color over another.

-Sounds good.
-All right.

[Faye] So, as you
can see behind me

we're almost done
laying out the hoods.

We have one more left to go.

Then we're gonna put out
all this amazing bird food

and string up our
"power lines."

And I'm pretty stoked.
I'm feeling pretty
positive about this.

Already we are seeing
and hearing

all sorts of birds
in the area.

And I think that they cannot
wait for us
to put out our food

and come feast.

And, um, lay some waste.

I'm pretty excited!

[Faye] So, we're spreading
around these mealworms

because these
are gonna lure in

the most common types of birds
in Southern California,

crows and pigeons.

And, we're near the beach, so
there's gonna be tons
of seagulls.

[Bisi] You're right.

-Oh, the smell.
-[Faye] Ew!

[Faye] Are we to find 18
pieces of crap on one hood

and like, 14 pieces of crap
on another hood?

Is red the most popular color
or is camo the best?

Who knows? But we'll be able
to draw some conclusions

in about 30 days.

Okay, we've got some time
on our hands.

So, while we wait,
I've got an idea.

Let's turn this myth
upside down

and see if we can find ways

to stop birds
from pooping on our cars.

I wonder if there's any way
if we can like,

specifically repel birds

from every car.

What if we each come up

with our own unique invention

that keeps birds
from pooping on our cars?

It'll be a little competition.

-Oh.
-Oh.

I'm so down. I love that idea.

I have the perfect repellant.

I'm gonna have to put
some brain power behind this
because normally

I try to attract birds to me,
not repel them.

But, uh, that's right.

I'm, I'm down
for a competition.
I love this.

How are we gonna judge
who wins?

-Well.
-Well, least amount of poop.

Who gets pooped on the least?

-Yeah, duh.
That's perfect.
-Yep.

Nothing will come near
my hood.

-Nothing.
Not even humans.
-Really?

Bisi's gonna just set a bed
out there and just,

every time a bird comes,
"Get away from my hood."

All right, guys,
let's get to it.

[Tory] All right,
this is exciting

because each of us
are gonna come up
with our own technique

to keep birds
from pooping on our cars.

Now, my technique is lasers.

Why? Well,
cats go crazy for them.

So, I'm hoping there's
an adverse effect on birds.

The plan is, I'm gonna take
all my laser beams.

How many do we have here?

We've got 55 total.

[Tory] Put them
across the hood,

glue them down, turn them on,

and when the birds fly over

they'll look down,
see the lasers

and it'll scare them off.

So, I'll set up
these solar panels

and they'll stay on 24/7.

It's gonna be like,
an explosion of lasers.

[laughs] Scary already.

I typically would have
something really

verbose and crazy
and mechanical.

But you know what, sometimes,

you have to go to the basics.

And you can't get any more
basic than what I have here.

In real life,
owls are natural predators.

So, these owl statues
should be a pretty
good deterrent.

This actually works
for my own workshop.

There will be no poop
whatsoever on this hood.

All right.
So, I actually think that

I'm gonna dominate
this competition

because I'm gonna use
a technique

that I actually use
in my home garden

for keeping the deer
off of my vegetables.

And that is,

motion-activated squirters.

And, I'm actually
gonna utilize

the washer squirters
on this hood.

So, I've got my, uh,
under hood liner removed

and I'm actually just gonna
go ahead and reverse these.

So normally they are facing
towards the windshield.

[chuckles]

Facing the hood.

[laughs heartily]
So, I've got,

both washer squirters.

I need the motion detectors.

So, bird lands,
motion activation,

they get sprayed,
they go away.
Also, if they do poop

the spray [softly]
might clean it off.

So, even if I don't win legit,

I'm gonna win.

Uh, hey, uh, hey, Tory!

-Come here for a sec.
-Yes.

I need a hand
lifting up this hood.

Hey. [laughs]

[Faye laughs]

It is time to see if it works.

Here, give me some more smoke.

Here comes the drop.

[mimicking beats]

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, my hood's complete.

I can't wait to try
this out in the field.

[narrator] But first,
they've gotta see the results

of their bird poop test.

[birds chirping]

[Faye] So we are back
at the bird poop lot.

It has been 30 days
and now we're making

our final tabulation
of poop on hoods.

[Tory] Whoa, look at this.

And so we're gonna finally see
if there's truth to this myth.

[Bisi] Oh, I see some stuff.

Do birds prefer
to poop on red cars?

Wow, okay, that's interesting.

Do they? I don't know.

You don't know.
We're about to find out.

[Faye] Okay, we got
some action over here.

-[Tory] Ten turds.
-On the white.

-Three, four, five,
six, seven.
-Four, five, six, seven.

[Tory] Wow, all right.

Is that one there? That's one.

[Bisi] Okay, rainbow.

[Faye] Okay.

-[Tory] Yellow.
-[Faye] One. That's it.

That is crazy.

The poop is camouflaged.

Whose idea was camouflage?

[Faye clears throat]

-Wow, the red got a lot.
-[Bisi] Yeah, it did.

-[Tory] Is this one?
Yeah, definitely.
-[Bisi] Yes, it is.

[Bisi] Wow.

All right, should we, uh,

-tally up our numbers and see
-[Bisi sighs] Yes.

-who's the winner?
-[Faye] We shall.

[Faye] The results
are totally unexpected.

The ornithologist
felt that silver
would be their favorite

as it was the most
reflective color.

And even taking into account
the wavelength of light

the birds can see
that we can't,

there's no statistical
correlation

with the color spectrum.

But personally, I'm pretty
happy with the results.

[Bisi] Long story short,
look at the top three.

Still purple, white

and the red.

So, the myth that red cars
attract more bird poop

-is busted.
-Hundred percent.

I agree with you.

-Nice work.
-Thank you.

We determined that red
being the most popular
is busted.

Birds do not prefer
to poop more

on red hoods than any others.

[Tory] So, pooping
on red cars is busted.

But this is MythBusters.

We're not gonna
leave it like that.

All right. Okay.

This is gonna freak
those birds out.

They're not gonna know
what hit them.

Now, we're gonna try something
completely different.

We're gonna see
if we can repel birds

with our ingenious gadgets.

[Faye] So,
just like in our first test

we are gonna leave
these here for 30 days

and see if there's any poop
on any of them.

And whoever has the most poop
is the loser.

Hopefully, there's some of us
that don't have any poop.

[Tory] Those are all lasers.

-You're kidding me?
-No.

So, basically
I'm gonna have like a,

an array of lasers
shooting straight up.

So, I'm hoping
they'll look down and go,

"What the hell is that?"
and then fly away.

And go hang out
with their friends.

No, natural predator.

You're like, a high-tech guy.

I thought you might go
with something

a little bit higher tech.

But you what,
simplicity sometimes rules.

Okay. I got some
motion detectors here.

-I see.
-Yeah.

Some proximity sensors
going on here.

Exactly. So when the birds
land on the wire,

-Okay.
-then, uh,

-the sensors--
-Will call you?

-Yeah. Exactly.
-Oh.

And then I'll come over
and scare them away.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

-Good luck with that.
-Mm-hm. Yeah.

Yeah. No problem. Will do.

My predictions,

no bird poop on this hood.

Lots of failures
to the left and right of me.

[Tory] Well, we're all set.

And I guess in 30 days
we'll come back

and crown me the victor.

[chuckles] He means
me the victor.

[birds squawking]

-So it's been a month.
-[Faye] I know.

I'm really excited, you guys.

I just hope
that you guys are ready

to, uh,
witness me crushing you

-[Bisi] Oh.
-with my invention.

[Tory] Wow, that's impressive.

[Bisi] That's amazing.

-Let's take a look.
-Wait a second.

Wait a second.
Wait a second. Oh, crap!

You got one little
piece of poop.

-Okay.
-No, I got a few.

-Oh.
-Ah, careful.

-You got one there.
-Okay.

[Faye] Oh, crap.

Literally, crap.

-[Faye] This is not good.
-Let's count them up.

[Faye] One, two, three,

-four, five, six,
-I got 13.

Okay, on to Congress.

-All right, the Congress.
-Congress.

All right, we got one.

-How dare they?
-Two.

-Three, four, five.
-[Faye laughs]

-[Bisi] Four.
-What's that?

-That looks like a poop.
-[Bisi] No.

Circle it. That's a poop.
That's a poop.

That's a poop
on the back of the owl.

That's how scared they were.

-Oh, man.
-Okay, that's six.

-All right.
-Moving on to lasers.

-Three, four, five, six.
-Three, four,

five, six,

seven, eight, nine, ten.

Eleven. All right.

Eleven, what?

Well, ah!

Good job, Bisi. I wanna,

-I wanna say congratulations
-As much--

-for winning the competition.
-Thank you.

Uh, I'm happy to be a
runner up, second place.

[grunts] Feels good.

Ah, I have nothing to say.

All right, so as far as
the myth goes,

uh, totally busted
on whether or not

birds are actually attracted
to red cars more
than any other cars.

Awesome. Seems like owls
are the winner.

Uh, and I suppose I should be
like, upset about that

but, I don't know, I'm,
I'm like a super low-tech
loving person.

So, like, even though I lost

I'm actually, like,
still kinda stoked.

Like, technology's
not always the answer.

[Bisi] See, the perfect
invention would be

some type of contraption
that when you park,

just like exotic,
luxury cars from Europe,

the owls will just emerge
from the hood.

And your Victorias
will keep away

matter from your vehicle.

I think you're onto something.

I think so as well.
I'll think about that.

Do you need some seed money?

-Literally, I do. I like that.
-Seed money.

[Faye] Fold up owls.

[Faye screaming]

[all laughing]

Turn that damn thing off.