OXFORD — Researchers from Oxford University found that birds give priority to their partners rather than their feeding needs. The experiment, conducted by lead researcher Josh Firth on Wytham Woods, was focused on the behavior of the great tit, but he believes their discoveries could be apply to other species.

In fact, birds such as swans, parrots, geese, cranes, eagles and the mentioned great tit are already known to choose an only partner for life.

The experiment had the purpose of studying the bird’s ability to access their food under different conditions. In order to do this, scientists distributed automated bird feeding stations that could only be accessed by some birds which ID tags allowed them to unlock the devices. Researchers came up with this method to separate birds from their mates, assigning them different feeding stations.

Great-tit-love-food
The bird has a black head with a prominent white cheek, a greenish back, a blue wing with a prominent white bar, and a yellowish belly. Credit: Francis C. Franklin/Wikipedia

Results showed that instead of taking separate ways in order to access food, mates chose to stay together and attempt to bypass the restrictions set by researchers. Some birds were able to learn that the feeding station would stay unlocked for two seconds after it recognized the selected bird’s ID tag, a time lapse its mate would use to feed as much as it could before the machine closed.

Another group of birds for the same experiment were left in pairs, but same as with the former group, only one of the mates could access the feeder. In this case, some birds were seen to manipulate the security system and manage to get food for the other bird that was denied access.

The study’s findings prove the importance that social relationships hold for birds. While this might seem like a weakness in birds’ survival judgment, these animals could actually be seeking to obtain the benefits of long-term relationships, such as the kind of cooperative behavior researchers were able to document.

“These results demonstrate the importance of social relationships for the expression, and consequences, of individual behavior,” wrote Firth on the study.

Source: Tech Times