6 ms·

Wild birds learn to avoid distasteful prey by watching others

61 points by hhs 5y ago

vmh1928 5y ago
Anyone who has watched birds find a dish of cat or dog food on the back porch knows they watch each other. The same thing goes for a place to roost (as in under the eves.) One bird might find the food or the place to roost by accident but other birds are watching.
autokad 5y ago
this is the real reason you shouldnt mess with / look at bird nests. Its not that the parents will 'smell a human' and not come back, that's not true at all. When you mess with or even look at a nest, you draw attention to predators. They see you looking and learn of the nest location.
eloeffler 5y ago
Now I wonder if some birds will fool other birds by pretending something isn't good.
- JadeNB 5y ago
  > Now I wonder if some birds will fool other birds by pretending something isn't good. How would they do that? If other birds are watching to see if they eat the food, it seems that your options (as a deceptive bird) are not to eat it (in which case they might be fooled, but you lose the food) or to eat it (in which case they aren't fooled—they aren't looking for your subsequent review of the prey!).
  - inetknght 5y ago
    By watching for when you're being watched. Don't eat it when you're being watched. Then eat it when you're not being watched.
  - taneq 5y ago
    Eat it and then feign sickness. As long as you check for predators first you have a good chance of scaring competitors away from the rest of the food.
- dint 5y ago
  Your comment reminded me of this video of ravens trying to hide food from each other. They clearly demonstrate a robust theory of mind. Each is keenly aware of the other's goals and capabilities. Seeing this, I could imagine birds using the strategy you describe. [0] https://youtu.be/Sng1oV_uDzM https://youtu.be/Sng1oV_uDzM
titzer 5y ago
Birds watch everything. That's a huge part of the advantage of flight; you can roost high up and get an overview of any situation. Crows are extremely intelligent and have developed a heightened ability to do "systems thinking"--working out the elements of any situation, how they interact, what causality there is, etc. It's great that they keep finding these new behaviors, but this shouldn't be surprising when you work out the implications of having a good brain, a high perch, and a lot of time and curiosity (a crow's lifespan could be 30 years or more). Add social learning aspects and an as-yet-undeciphered language of calls, and there's a lot of intelligence there.
- dmos62 5y ago
  > this shouldn't be surprising when you work out the implications of having a good brain, a high perch, and a lot of time and curiosity Under what circumstances do those things have poorer implications?
  - monocasa 5y ago
    "Curiosity killed the cat"
    - dmos62 5y ago
      Isn't curiosity a synonym for adventurous stupidity in this idiom?
      - monocasa 5y ago
        > "Curiosity killed the cat" is an idiom-proverb used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation. It also implies that being curious can sometimes lead to danger or misfortune. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - 5y ago
tibbydudeza 5y ago
My wife got an African Grey parrot during lockdown - it repeats some phrases but I sometimes it uses a phrase under the "right" circumstances. Like "what are you doing" - usually when I sit down at my PC or in bed reading a book. Maybe I am just imagining things.
- jcun4128 5y ago
  That's the species that had a famous bird right? Alex I think.
- mosseater 5y ago
  Considering the African Grey is definitively one of the smartest birds in the world, it's intelligence and emotional capacity being that of a 5 year old human, you are probably not imagining anything :P.
encryptluks2 5y ago
I have a cat that unfortunately has caught a couple birds. They get unusually close to it while tweeting loudly. It is almost like they are trying to taunt it away.
- Jhsto 5y ago
  Birds definitely do this to cats. My parents used to have a cat which could occasionally located by listening to where magpies were shouting. Now that the cat is gone, the magpies can often be located by listening to where the thrushes are shouting.
wombatmobile 5y ago
It's common for humans to misunderestimate the cognitive abilities of other species. So common, in fact, it could be described as a characteristic of that species. Do goldfish really have a 3-second memory? https://www.livescience.com/goldfish-memory.html https://www.livescience.com/goldfish-memory.html

61 points by hhs 5y ago

vmh1928 5y ago

Anyone who has watched birds find a dish of cat or dog food on the back porch knows they watch each other. The same thing goes for a place to roost (as in under the eves.) One bird might find the food or the place to roost by accident but other birds are watching.

autokad 5y ago

this is the real reason you shouldnt mess with / look at bird nests. Its not that the parents will 'smell a human' and not come back, that's not true at all. When you mess with or even look at a nest, you draw attention to predators. They see you looking and learn of the nest location.

eloeffler 5y ago

Now I wonder if some birds will fool other birds by pretending something isn't good.

JadeNB 5y ago
> Now I wonder if some birds will fool other birds by pretending something isn't good. How would they do that? If other birds are watching to see if they eat the food, it seems that your options (as a deceptive bird) are not to eat it (in which case they might be fooled, but you lose the food) or to eat it (in which case they aren't fooled—they aren't looking for your subsequent review of the prey!).
- inetknght 5y ago
  By watching for when you're being watched. Don't eat it when you're being watched. Then eat it when you're not being watched.
- taneq 5y ago
  Eat it and then feign sickness. As long as you check for predators first you have a good chance of scaring competitors away from the rest of the food.
dint 5y ago
Your comment reminded me of this video of ravens trying to hide food from each other. They clearly demonstrate a robust theory of mind. Each is keenly aware of the other's goals and capabilities. Seeing this, I could imagine birds using the strategy you describe. [0] https://youtu.be/Sng1oV_uDzM https://youtu.be/Sng1oV_uDzM

titzer 5y ago

Birds watch everything. That's a huge part of the advantage of flight; you can roost high up and get an overview of any situation. Crows are extremely intelligent and have developed a heightened ability to do "systems thinking"--working out the elements of any situation, how they interact, what causality there is, etc. It's great that they keep finding these new behaviors, but this shouldn't be surprising when you work out the implications of having a good brain, a high perch, and a lot of time and curiosity (a crow's lifespan could be 30 years or more). Add social learning aspects and an as-yet-undeciphered language of calls, and there's a lot of intelligence there.

dmos62 5y ago
> this shouldn't be surprising when you work out the implications of having a good brain, a high perch, and a lot of time and curiosity Under what circumstances do those things have poorer implications?
- monocasa 5y ago
  "Curiosity killed the cat"
  - dmos62 5y ago
    Isn't curiosity a synonym for adventurous stupidity in this idiom?
    - monocasa 5y ago
      > "Curiosity killed the cat" is an idiom-proverb used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation. It also implies that being curious can sometimes lead to danger or misfortune. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - 5y ago

tibbydudeza 5y ago

My wife got an African Grey parrot during lockdown - it repeats some phrases but I sometimes it uses a phrase under the "right" circumstances. Like "what are you doing" - usually when I sit down at my PC or in bed reading a book. Maybe I am just imagining things.

jcun4128 5y ago
That's the species that had a famous bird right? Alex I think.
mosseater 5y ago
Considering the African Grey is definitively one of the smartest birds in the world, it's intelligence and emotional capacity being that of a 5 year old human, you are probably not imagining anything :P.

encryptluks2 5y ago

I have a cat that unfortunately has caught a couple birds. They get unusually close to it while tweeting loudly. It is almost like they are trying to taunt it away.

Jhsto 5y ago
Birds definitely do this to cats. My parents used to have a cat which could occasionally located by listening to where magpies were shouting. Now that the cat is gone, the magpies can often be located by listening to where the thrushes are shouting.

wombatmobile 5y ago

It's common for humans to misunderestimate the cognitive abilities of other species. So common, in fact, it could be described as a characteristic of that species. Do goldfish really have a 3-second memory? https://www.livescience.com/goldfish-memory.html https://www.livescience.com/goldfish-memory.html