Watching TV helps birds make better food choices
20 February 2020By watching videos of each other eating, blue tits and great tits can learn to avoid foods that taste disgusting and are potentially toxic, a new study has found.
Birds learn from each other’s ‘disgust’, enabling insects to evolve bright colours
18 December 2017A new study of TV-watching great tits reveals how they learn through observation. Social interactions within a predator species can have “evolutionary consequences” for potential prey – such as the conspicuous warning colours of insects like ladybirds.
Neighbourhood watch and more: how reed warblers watch out when there’s a cuckoo about
22 January 2016A study of reed warbler behaviour reveals for the first time that in assessing the risks posed by cuckoos the birds combine information from multiple sources. An ‘information highway’ provides one set of clues and personal encounters another. Only when both add up, do the birds take defensive action.
