Enjoying this game of cat and mouse. Er, cat and bird...

[tclambert]

13. I've always wondered how the swishing tail doesn't give cats away when they stalk birds.

I've seen cats "sneak" up on birds across a hundred feet of open ground, moving a few feet closer every time the bird pecks at something on the ground, then when the bird looks up, the cat freezes, except for the tail. How do they not see that lashing tail? Three feet away, the bird finally recognizes the danger and tries to take off. The cat leaps and snags the bird out of the air. How have birds not learned to look for that tail movement?