#ornothology
Starving chicks become greedy birds
Baby starlings that have a rough start in life grow up to become fatter and greedier than their more fortunate siblings.
Scientists from Newcastle University discovered that stress and difficulties as a chick made a long lasting impression on a starling’s relationship with food.
Birds that struggled against larger brothers or sisters for food early on were keener on finding food and tended to over-eat as adults.
The scientists suspect that the birds with a tougher start were behaving as if they were worried food might run out, suggesting that they have a ‘memory of hunger’ from when they were small which drives them to overeat when food is freely available.
Images (top to bottom) Clare Andrews, Maggie.Smith,Jo Garbutt,Beverley Goodwin
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How crows connect
The New Caledonian crow is well-known for its ability to make and use tools to poke nutritious insects out of their hiding places.
An international team led by the University of St Andrews has studied the social networks of crows to understand how tool-use might spread between birds and across communities.
The team looked at the social interactions of wild New Caledonian crows in their tropical habitat. Each crow was fitted with a high-tech, miniature spy tag which provided a record of which crows met at any given time.
They found that providing the crows with food had a similar effect to putting out a plate of freshly baked cookies – individual crows hang around the supply which can accelerate the spread of interesting information.
Scientists still don’t know how much of their tool-use behaviour New Caledonian crows learn from each other, but the study shows that opportunities for information exchange are plenty, especially when important resources encourage birds to forage in the same place.
Images: James St Clair, James St Clair, Jolyon Troscianko
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