Article #5: Birds Recognize Common Intruders

Birds are known to keep to themselves are not aware of the surrounding people that walk by their nests unless they are threatened by a predator or an intruder. Although, most types of birds are able to recognize people who are frequently by their nests and invading their space. A graduate student name Christine Stracey has been invading a mockingbird’s nest, counting their bird eggs and putting bands on their chicks for a research project. She noticed that the birds were getting irritated with her so they started attacking her when she would approach their nest. They would ignore people who would walk by their nests without bothering them. Parrots are known to recognize their owners and so are crows to recognize the same people that come into their territory.

Stracey decided to do an experiment with her ecology professor to see if mockingbirds recognize individual humans. They asked a volunteer to stand by a brooding mockingbird’s nest for 30 minutes while touching the nest half of the time for 4 consecutive days while the mother bird was present. At first, the mother bird was aggravated and would fly away to a nearby bush and shout alarm calls to other birds nearby. On the fourth day, when the volunteer was approaching the nest, the bird would dive-bomb the volunteer’s head. On the fifth day, Stracey asked another volunteer to approach the nest to see what the bird would do, the mother bird reset her behavior, responding as she had to the other volunteer on the first day (Grom 2009). They did this experiment 23 times and came up with the same results. Out of 100 people that pass by their nest, they are able to spot out their intruders. Most birds recognize a familiar person that consistently approaches their nest whom they think may cause harm to their offspring and territory.

Citation Information
Grom Jackie. 2009 “The Bird Who Knows Who You Are.” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 21]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/518/3