Scared bird herd (flock)

June 3, 2008 5:22 PM

Why are some birds less scared than other birds?

Walking home from work today I saw something that I had witnessed on a number of occasions involving a flock of birds. I was approaching a flock of around 15-20 sparrows, about 50 metres away, when there was a loud noise which frightened the flock away. As I got closer to the speck where the birds where grazing/hanging out I noticed that one bird was still there, upon getting too close to it, off it flew.

I was wondering why this one bird, and other birds in similar situations, hung around longer rather than going along with the safety of the flock. There are a few reasons that I thought it might hang round longer than its mates....
1) To try and get the last bits of food that everyone else left - but this would mean exposing itself to other dangers, and are the arse end of other birds feed worth risking your life for?
2) Deafness? Do birds go deaf? Maybe it didn't hear the initial kerfuffle, so decided to hang around longer until a predator caught its eye.
3) Stupidity - much like number 2, but with the bird deciding it was in no danger.
4) Intelligence - realising that it was in no danger from the initial noise, so only leaving when it was really necessary.

I also wondered if these birds showing no fear become the "top dog" of the group, and there was some kind of avian chicken game going on that we are not aware of.

Can anyone shed light on this long rambling question?

posted by djstig to pets & animals (4 comments total)

Some answers:
1) possible, why not? mmm... arse end feed!
2) yes, birds can go deaf/have hearing problems
3) maybe, intelligence is not uniform within species
4) maybe, intelligence is not uniform within species

In short, most animals are no less idiosyncratic & individualistic than we are. Anyone who has worked with them will tell you as much. Of course, like humans, many will behave in predictable fashions given certain situations, but there's always going to be a few that break the so-called mold.

For example, this is not "typical" crow (or cat) behavior. And yet, there it is.

Lastly, different species have different generalized forms of social organization. "Top dog" is not always an applicable or appropriate concept.
posted by jammy at 5:47 PM on June 3

Also consider that such "brave" behavior arguably has a natural selection bias against it. Birds to slow / stupid to fly off early like the others get caught.
posted by intermod at 7:05 PM on June 3

It's only surprising if you don't accept the concept that behavior, like eye color, can have some of its roots in genetics. (I subscribe to this regarding human behavior as well, although we like to think of all of our actions as being based in free-will.)

Why wouldn't a large population have variation in "flight" behavior? Under some circumstances, it might even prove adaptive, and allow preferential survival, leading to greater frequency in a population.

Pine siskins in Colorado used to let me flick their tails, as did Allen's hummingbirds. They exhibited very little fear. A friend of mine used to be able to call a specific squirrel to his lap, and hand feed it.

Admitedly, some of this might be learned behavior that only expresses in favorable environments, but even that might be more likely to a specific genetic makeup of an individual, again, leading to preferential survival and greater appearance in a population.

Of course, the converse is true. A brave bird might get eaten by a cat, and there goes the brave gene for a while.
posted by FauxScot at 7:13 PM on June 3

I think there is probably a Pavlovian response at play. I've been involved with training parrots and parrot rescue for years. It's well known in training animals that behavior that results in a reward, or positive experience will be repeated and behavior that results in unfavorable consequences will become extinct. It's likely that the birds that flutter away have had some unpleasant experiences as a result of being the last bird 'at the table' and the ones that stick around have not. We see it all the time with parrots. If a bird has been abused by a man with a deep voice, it takes a LOT to get that bird to overcome his fear of men with deep voices. Many can never recover from the fear response that is triggered.
posted by caroljean63 at 7:51 PM on June 3