100 Years of Bird Behaviour Studies Angela Turner

100 years of bird behaviour studies Angela Turner ‘The courtship habits of the Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus; with an addition to the theory of sexual selection’ (Huxley 1914); this article was a good example of single-species studies of bird behaviour published in Britain early in the twentieth century. Dan Cole ABSTRACT In the first half of the twentieth century, studies of bird species were influential in the evolution of the science of animal behaviour. Following the development of key theoretical ideas, behavioural research diversified in the second half of the century, with studies using birds as model species providing important examples and insights in such areas as optimal foraging, cognition, sexual selection, mating systems, co-operation, communication and navigation. Such single-species studies offer insights not possible from comparative studies.They have also had more practical applications, for example in wildlife management and in monitoring pollution and climate change. he observation and recording of the captive species, but also those species that lived behaviour of birds has a long history. in and around human habitations and farms. TAristotle was the first important chronic- Johann Pernauer, in Germany, kept birds in ler of the lives of birds and other animals, aviaries and trained them to fly out for a day or recording his own and others’ observations in more into the wild. His book Agreeable Country the Historia Animalium. Much of his informa- Pleasures or Taming and Training Birds, first tion came from hunters and bird catchers who published in 1702, includes detailed observa- came to know the habits of their prey, the better tions of a variety of common species. In to catch them. Observations in later centuries England, Gilbert White kept detailed and often concerned not only domesticated or other careful records of the local birds of Selbourne. © British Birds 100 • November 2007 • 665–679 665 100 years of bird behaviour studies By the late nineteenth century some mainly habits of Brown Noddies Anous stolidus and observational studies of bird behaviour were Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscata in the Dry being made by, for example, Edmund Selous in Tortugas and devised experiments to test their England and John James Audubon in America, orientation ability, how they recognise their ter- but it is really only since the mid twentieth ritory and their behaviour in mazes (e.g. century that descriptions of natural history Watson 1908); in Britain, Julian Huxley have changed to a search for explanations of recorded the courtship displays of birds, behaviour. The study of various species of birds including Common Redshank Tringa totanus has been at the forefront of this recent growth and Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus (e.g. in biological research, and my intention in this Huxley 1912, 1914); H. Eliot Howard wrote essay is to give some examples of how such about territorial behaviour in birds (Howard studies have contributed to the science of 1920); F. H. A. Marshall studied the effects of animal behaviour over the past 100 years. male bird displays on the breeding behaviour of Inevitably, given the space available, I shall females (e.g. Marshall 1936); and in Germany touch on relatively few particular studies and Oskar Heinroth compared the anatomy and those chosen are a personal selection to illus- behaviour of several species of ducks and geese trate the developments in this field. (Anatidae) (e.g. Heinroth 1911). At the beginning of the twentieth century, Studies and observations of the biology of the emphasis was still mainly on describing the bird species proliferated in the twentieth typical behaviour and biology of a species. Little century, and were often published in the experimental or theoretical work was being various local and national specialist bird jour- done and, in the behavioural field, what there nals such as British Birds that had appeared was primarily concerned mechanisms of behav- since the middle of the nineteenth century. iour. For example, the American psychologist British Birds has published numerous articles J. B. Watson recorded the feeding and breeding on bird biology and behaviour, for example the Lacks’ study of Common Swifts Apus apus (Lack & Lack 1952) and Bryan Nelson’s study of Northern Gannets Morus bas- sanus (Nelson 1965), as well as shorter observations and descriptions in the behaviour notes section. Notable early con- tributions to BB include Lack & Lockley’s (1938) study showing that displaced European Storm- petrels Hydrobates pelagicus and Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus do not need familiar landmarks to return home, and the articles by Fisher & Hinde (1949) and Hinde & Fisher (1951) reporting the widespread ability of some birds, mostly Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major,to open the tops of milk bottles to get at the cream, which has been widely cited as an example of avian innovation and imitation. Richard Chandler Many descriptive studies of 310. When BB was first published, descriptive accounts of the typical the basic biology of bird species behaviour and biology of a species were the norm; for example, in Britain, Julian Huxley recorded the courtship displays of the Common Redshank have long been done by both Tringa totanus (Huxley 1912). amateur and professional 666 British Birds 100 • November 2007 • 665–679 100 years of bird behaviour studies ornithologists because of an interest in the the only models available for studying behav- species itself. Biologists, however, often study a ioural science – other taxonomic groups may be particular species to explore fundamental scien- more suitable on practical or welfare grounds, tific questions in, for example, behaviour or or because of particular characteristics of the ecology. One (or several related) species is thus group – but they have been, and still are, very seen as a model for animals in general with popular subjects of scientific research. About a behaviour that is representative of other taxo- quarter of papers published in the journal nomic groups. This inductive approach based Animal Behaviour between 2000 and 2006, for on studies of single species, and of how and example, were on birds. why species differ, can thus lead to general Ideally a model species needs to be abun- underlying scientific principles. Detailed studies dant, easy to catch and observe, and amenable of a species’ biology, in contrast, often provide to humans interfering with their everyday lives background information, inspiration and ideas to some extent. It also helps if a species has a for further questions in these hypotheses-driven relatively short life span and is sedentary or reg- studies. As an example from BB, the observa- ularly breeds in the same place so that individ- tion of bottle opening by tits referred to above uals can be followed over their own and their has been followed by other studies on how offspring’s lifetimes. If the species lives in novel behaviours are passed between individ- colonies or at high densities with individuals uals (see e.g. Galef & Laland 2005) and by an breeding at about the same time of year, experimental examination of the original phe- researchers can easily conduct experiments such nomenon, which suggests that the birds were as manipulating brood size or numbers of nest learning the technique themselves after finding parasites. Birds often fit the bill in these respects opened and partially opened bottles rather than and, consequently, researchers frequently use copying the behaviour of other birds (Sherry & them as models. Nestbox nesters such as Great Galef 1984, 1990). Tits or Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor (in A variety of species have been used as North America) are particularly popular sub- models of animal behaviour, from dung-flies jects because they are easy to catch and their (Scathophagidae) and social spiders (Araneae) breeding attempts can be readily recorded, to dolphins (Odontoceti) and chimpanzees whether by checking the nest contents manually (Pongidae), and good models have become the or (nowadays) remotely by video or webcam. focus of long-term studies, with the input of In the early twentieth century in North numerous researchers over the years. Some of America, psychologists such as B. F. Skinner these studies concern charismatic large used mainly rats Rattus and pigeons mammals. For instance the Chimpanzees Pan (Columbidae) as model animals to study topics troglodytes at Gombe Stream National Park, such as learning in the laboratory. In contrast, Tanzania, have been studied since 1960, and in Europe scientists were turning their attention both the African Elephants Loxodonta africana to animals in the wild. Studies of birds were in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, and the Red influential in the development of ethology, the Deer Cervus elaphus on the island of Rum, Scot- science of animal behaviour, in Europe at this land, since 1972. Smaller creatures are no less time, particularly studies by the Dutch zoologist important, however; the mating system of Niko Tinbergen and the Austrian-born zoolo- Yellow Dung-flies Scathophaga stercoraria,for gist Konrad Lorenz. Both Tinbergen and Lorenz example, has been a topic of investigation since were interested in searching for explanations of 1965. Studies of birds have also continued over behaviour rather than just describing it. They many years: Anders Møller, for example, has shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medi- observed and studied Barn Swallows Hirundo cine in 1973 with Karl von Frisch (unfortu- rustica at Kraghede, Denmark, since 1971. nately there is no Nobel Prize for studying Researchers usually select a model species behaviour or ecology). Tinbergen, together with that is suitable for answering the questions that students and colleagues, carried out many they want to ask, although a childhood interest important experiments on the causation and in a particular taxon, whether it be dung-flies function of behaviour in a variety of animals, cavorting on a cowpat or swallows skimming including digger wasps (Sphecidae), stickle- around the cows, can also influence what a biol- backs (Gasterosteidae) and gulls (Laridae) (e.g.

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