As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Being lower in pecking order improves female tit birds' memory

Date:
December 9, 2014

Source:
Springer Science+Business Media

Summary:
When it comes to remembering where a tasty titbit was left, female great tit birds are miles ahead of their male counterparts. This ability might have evolved because the females come second when there’s food to be shared.

Great tits (Parus major) are highly intelligent and quick learners. These common European songbirds have interesting and ever-changing ways in which they find food, and even use tools such as conifer needles during foraging. Unlike most other members of the tit family, great tits are not food hoarders. Brodin and Urhan have previously demonstrated that they are able to observe where their hoarding relatives have made a stash, only to retrieve it up to 24 hours later.

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