'Shy' Male Birds Flock Together -- And Have Fewer Friends

Male birds that exhibit 'shy' social behaviour are much more likely to join flocks of birds with a similar personality than their 'bold' male counterparts, a new study has found. But shy birds also have fewer social partners than bold birds.

The research, carried out by scientists from Oxford University and the Australian National University, used a new way of analysing the social networks that link individual animals to each other -- a kind of 'Facebook for birds' -- to reveal how differences between individuals underpin the way that social interactions occur across populations.

The study of great tits (Parus major) in Wytham Woods, near Oxford (UK), also found that shy male and female birds don't interact with as many different individuals as bold males or females, and that shy males and females tend to have more stable relationships than bold ones -- being seen with the same individuals more often over time.

Lees meer: ScienceDaily

Birds Choose Sweet-Smelling Mates

For most animals, scent is the instant messenger of choice for quickly exchanging personal profiles. Scientists, however, have long dismissed birds as odor-eschewing Luddites that don't take advantage of scent-based communications.

In a first-of-its-kind study, however, a Michigan State University researcher has demonstrated that birds do indeed communicate via scents, and that odor reliably predicts their reproductive success. The study appears in the current issue of Animal Behaviour and focuses on volatile compounds in avian preen secretions.

Lees meer: ScienceDaily