Acoustic mechanisms of a species-based discrimination of the chick-a-dee call in sympatric black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (P. gambeli)

Previous perceptual research with black-capped and mountain chickadees has demonstrated that these species treat each other’s namesake chick-a-dee calls as belonging to separate, open-ended categories. Further, the terminal dee portion of the call has been implicated as the most prominent species marker. However, statistical classification using acoustic summary features suggests that all note-types contained within the chick-a-dee call should be sufficient for species classification. The current study seeks to better understand the note-type based mechanisms underlying species-based classification of the chick-a-dee call by black-capped and mountain chickadees. In two, complementary, operant discrimination experiments, both species were trained to discriminate the species of the signaler using either entire chick-a-dee calls, or individual note-types from chick-a-dee calls. In agreement with previous perceptual work we find that the D note had significant stimulus control over species-based discrimination. However, in line with statistical classifications, we find that all note-types carry species information. We discuss reasons why the most easily discriminated note-types are likely candidates to carry species-based cues.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Categories, concepts, and calls : auditory perceptual mechanisms and cognitive abilities across different types of birds.

Although involving different animals, preparations, and objectives, our laboratories (Sturdy's and Cook's) are mutually interested in category perception and concept formation. The Sturdy laboratory has a history of studying perceptual categories in songbirds, while Cook laboratory has a history of studying abstract concept formation in pigeons. Recently, we undertook a suite of collaborative projects to combine our investigations to examine abstract concept formation in songbirds, and perception of songbird vocalizations in pigeons. This talk will include our recent findings of songbird category perception, songbird abstract concept formation (same/different task), and early results from pigeons' processing of songbird vocalizations in a same/different task. Our findings indicate that (1) categorization in birds seems to be most heavily influenced by acoustic, rather than genetic or experiential factors (2) songbirds treat their vocalizations as perceptual categories, both at the level of the note and species/whole call, (3) chickadees, like pigeons, can perceive abstract, same-different relations, and (4) pigeons are not as good at discriminating chickadee vocalizations as songbirds (chickadees and finches). Our findings suggest that although there are commonalities in complex auditory processing among birds, there are potentially important comparative differences between songbirds and non-songbirds in their treatment of certain types of auditory objects.Publisher PD

Nest building, the forgotten behaviour

We thank the BBSRC (BB/I019502/1, SDH; Anniversary Future Leader Fellowship 163 BB/M013944/1, LMG) for funding.In the last decade tool manufacture in birds has transformed the landscape of animal cognition. As tool manufacture, however, is rare and practised by species that are not commonplace it is not a particularly useful model for investigating the evolution of physical cognition. On the basis of recent evidence, we argue that nest building, which bears considerable phenotypic resemblance to tool making, is more useful for examining not only the role that cognition may play in construction behaviours, but also the neural underpinning of those behaviours and, ultimately their evolution. We substantiate our view with recent evidence that building by birds involves changes in dexterity, is experience-dependent and involves activity in, at least, motor, reward and social network brain regions as well as in the cerebellum.PostprintPeer reviewe

Social learning in nest-building birds watching live-streaming video demonstrators

Determining the role that social learning plays in construction behaviors, such as nest building or tool manufacture, could be improved if more experimental control could be gained over the exact public information that is provided by the demonstrator, to the observing individual. Using video playback allows the experimenter to choose what information is provided but will only be useful in determining the role of social learning if observers attend to, and learn from, videos in a manner that is similar to live demonstration. The goal of the current experiment was to test whether live‐streamed video presentations of nest building by zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata would lead observers to copy the material choice demonstrated to them. Here, males that had not previously built a nest were given an initial preference test between materials of 2 colors. Those observers then watched live‐stream footage of a familiar demonstrator building a nest with material of the color that the observer did not prefer. After this experience, observers were given the chance to build a nest with materials of the 2 colors. Although two‐thirds of the observer males preferred material of the demonstrated color after viewing the demonstrator build a nest with material of that color more than they had previously, their preference for the demonstrated material was not as strong as that of observers that had viewed live demonstrator builders in a previous experiment. Our results suggest researchers should proceed with caution before using video demonstration in tests of social learning.PostprintPeer reviewe

What can nest-building birds teach us?

We thank the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews for funding (AJB) and the BBSRC (LMG: BB/M013944/1 and SDH: BB/I019634/1).For many years nest building in birds has been considered a remarkable behaviour. Perhaps just as remarkable is the public and scholarly consensus that bird nests are achieved by instinct alone. Here we take the opportunity to review nearly 150 years of observational and experimental data on avian nest building. As a result we find that instinct-alone is insufficient to explain the data: birds use information they gather themselves and from other individuals to make nest-building decisions. Importantly, these data confirm that learning plays a significant role in a variety of nest-building decisions. We outline, then, the multiplicity of ways in which learning (e.g., imprinting, associative learning, social learning) might act to affect nest building and how these might help to explain the diversity both of nest-building behaviour and in the resulting structure. As a consequence, we contend that nest building is a much under-investigated behaviour that holds promise both for determining a variety of roles for learning in that behaviour as well as a new model system for examining brain-behaviour relationships.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Reproductive consequences of material use in avian nest construction

This study was funded by the School of Biology and a St. Leonard’s College Scholarship at the University of St. Andrews, UK (both to A.J.B.), and by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Anniversary Future Leader Fellowship to L.M.G.; grant number: BBSRC – BB/M013944/1).Birds’ nests represent a rich behavioural ‘fingerprint’, comprising several important decisions—not the least of which is the selection of appropriate material. Material selection in nest-building birds is thought to reflect, in part, builder-birds’ use of the ‘best’ material—in terms of physical properties (e.g., rigidity)—refined across generations. There is, however, little experimental evidence to link the physical properties of nest material to both birds’ nest building and breeding performance. We examined individual-level material-use consequences for breeding zebra finches by manipulating the kind of material available to laboratory-housed pairs: stiff or flexible same-length string. We show that higher fledgling numbers were related to (i) fewer pieces used in nest construction by stiff-string builders; and conversely, (ii) more pieces used in nest construction by flexible-string builders. Together, these data suggest that physical differences in nest material can affect avian reproduction (here, the trade-off between nest-construction investment and breeding success), highlighting the adaptive significance of nest-building birds’ material selectivity.PostprintPeer reviewe

Social learning in nest-building birds : a role for familiarity

© 2016 The Author(s).It is becoming apparent that birds learn from their own experiences of nest building. What is not clear is whether birds can learn from watching conspecifics build. As social learning allows an animal to gain information without engaging in costly trial-and-error learning, first-time builders should exploit the successful habits of experienced builders. We presented first-time nest-building male zebra finches with either a familiar or an unfamiliar conspecific male building with material of a colour the observer did not like. When given the opportunity to build, males that had watched a familiar male build switched their material preference to that used by the familiar male. Males that observed unfamiliar birds did not. Thus, first-time nest builders use social information and copy the nest material choices when demonstrators are familiar but not when they are strangers. The relationships between individuals therefore influences how nest-building expertise is socially transmitted in zebra finches.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Social learning in nest-building birds : a role for familiarity

© 2016 The Author(s).It is becoming apparent that birds learn from their own experiences of nest building. What is not clear is whether birds can learn from watching conspecifics build. As social learning allows an animal to gain information without engaging in costly trial-and-error learning, first-time builders should exploit the successful habits of experienced builders. We presented first-time nest-building male zebra finches with either a familiar or an unfamiliar conspecific male building with material of a colour the observer did not like. When given the opportunity to build, males that had watched a familiar male build switched their material preference to that used by the familiar male. Males that observed unfamiliar birds did not. Thus, first-time nest builders use social information and copy the nest material choices when demonstrators are familiar but not when they are strangers. The relationships between individuals therefore influences how nest-building expertise is socially transmitted in zebra finches.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Linking personality and cognition : a meta-analysis

LMG Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Anniversary Future Leader Fellowship BB/M013944/1. LRD Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Research Grant.In the past decade, several conceptual papers have linked variation in animal personality to variation in cognition, and recent years have seen a flood of empirical studies testing this link. However, these results have not been synthesized in a quantitative way. Here, we systematically search the literature and conduct a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis of empirical papers that have tested the relationship between animal personality (exploration, boldness, activity, aggression and sociability) and cognition (initial learning/reversal speed, number of correct choices/errors after standard training). We find evidence for a small but significant relationship between variation in personality and variation in learning across species in the absolute scale; however, the direction of this relationship is highly variable and when both positive and negative effect sizes are considered, the average effect size does not differ significantly from zero. Importantly, this variation among studies is not explained by differences in personality or learning measure, or taxonomic grouping. Further, these results do not support current hypotheses suggesting that that fast-explorers are fast-learners or that slow-explorers perform better on tests of reversal learning. Rather, we find evidence that bold animals are faster learners, but only when boldness is measured in response to a predator (or simulated predator) and not when boldness is measured by exposure to a novel object (or novel food). Further, although only a small sub-sample of papers reported results separately for males and females, sex explained a significant amount of variation in effect size. These results, therefore, suggest that, while personality and learning are indeed related across a range of species, the direction of this relationship is highly variable. Thus further empirical work is needed to determine whether there are important moderators of this relationship.PostprintPeer reviewe

Chickadee songs provide hidden clues to singers’ locations

Funding: LMG was supported by an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship (IWKMS) at UofA and is currently a BBSRC Anniversary Future Leader Fellow.Coordination of actions requires that organisms actively monitor the movements of others. The current study examined acoustic cues within the fee-bee song of chickadees that may provide listening conspecifics with information about the movements of singers. The difference between direct and reverberant acoustic energy present during the second note of the fee-bee song provided clear indications of how far the song had traveled. Preliminary analyses suggest that this distance cue may be robust to variations in the spectra and amplitude of song components,and that the acoustic features of the fee-bee song may facilitate simultaneous comparisons of reverberating fees with directly received bees by listening birds. Comparing coincident reverberation with directly received sounds may be a previously unsuspected way that animals living in reverberant environments can monitor the movements and interactions of conspecifics.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe