We know birds flock together, but what exactly do they do when they’re together? How much of that behavior is innate, and how much is innovated?
Male manakins dance in groups to attract a single female David Attenborough Netflix
The lead male has a chorus of several junior males who help him to impress a lady.
Of course, we don’t know how much is innate and how much is innovated. But the guys practice a lot before a female shows up, and they do change their behavior. I imagine it’s a mix.
Ostriches use communal nests Kate St. John A Blog of Birds & Nature
At six to nine feet tall and 140 to 300 pounds ostriches cannot fly, so for safety during the breeding season they live in flocks of five to fifty birds. When danger threatens they run or hide or kick the enemy with their feet.
Running is good but how do they protect their ground-based nests? Eggs can’t run.
Rather than protecting many scattered nests they organize into harems and all the females lay their eggs in the same scrape. The dominant male mates with all the females and the dominant female incubates the eggs. Sometimes there are too many eggs for her to sit on so she rejects the extras — laid by the minor females — and sits on only 20-25 eggs.
During incubation the birds hide the ground-based nest. The female’s brown feathers match the daytime landscape, the male’s black feathers are hard to see at night, so the female incubates during the day and the male at night. To further hide the nest they lay their heads and necks on the ground so they look like a lump. Daytime heat shimmers hide the female in a mirage!
It’s hard to know if this is learned behavior or not. My guess is most of it is innate.
The Sociable Weaver and nest building Wikipedia
The name says it all! This small brown bird native to southern Africa makes communal nests.
Sociable weavers construct permanent nests on trees and other tall objects. These nests are the largest built by any bird, and are large enough to house over a hundred pairs of birds,[9] containing several generations at a time. The nests are highly structured and provide birds with a more advantageous temperature relative to the outside. The central chambers retain heat and are used for nighttime roosting. The outer rooms are used for daytime shade and maintain temperatures of 7–8 °C (45–46 °F) inside while outside temperatures may range from 16–33 °C (61–91 °F).[10]
The nests consist of separate chambers, each of which is occupied by a pair (sometimes with offspring) roost and breed. Nests are built around large and sturdy structures like acacia trees or sometimes even telephone poles. The trees generally used for nest-building are Acacia erioloba, Boscia albitrunca and Aloidendron dichotomum. The birds at Etosha National Park also use Colophospermum mopane trees for nesting.[3] Large nesting colonies can be active across many generations, sometimes over a hundred years.[2][11] The nest appears like a large haystack in the tree. If seen from below, entrances into the chambers may be seen, giving a honey-comb appearance. The entrances may be about 3 in (76 mm) wide and can be up to 10 in (250 mm) long.[11] Sharp sticks may be placed to deter predators from entering.
Note that the nests are predated quite often; they are a favorite of snakes. Here’s an example of a sociable weaver nest — one of the largest bird-built structures:
Ravens work together to hunt prey. There are many, many examples of this behavior, but this is from a study in Israel. Matt Walker BBC
Ornithologists observed a number of birds acting together to trap and kill their prey in Israel's Arava Valley.
Two of the ravens would fly to the ground to block the lizard's escape route, while the others attacked it.
The behaviour suggests the birds must know what each other and the lizard are thinking, known as a 'theory of mind', say the scientists.
Crows work together to mob those they don’t like. Here’s a video of crows working together to mob a bald eagle until it flies away.
Cockatoos teach each other to open garbage bins Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Science Daily
This is certainly learned — and taught — behavior!
For the first time, a team of international scientists have proven that cockatoos, an iconic Australian bird species, learn from each other a unique skill -- lifting garbage bin lids to gather food. The world-first research published today in Science, confirms that cockatoos spread this novel behavior through social learning. Led by Barbara Klump and Lucy Aplin (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior), along with John Martin (Taronga Conservation Society) and Richard Major (Australian Museum), the team have shown that this behavior by cockatoos is actually learnt, rather than a result of genetics.
Lead co-author, Barbara Klump, said social learning is the basis of different regional cultures, and some animals, such as primates and birds, appear to learn socially. "Children are masters of social learning. From an early age, they copy skills from other children and adults. However, compared to humans, there are few known examples of animals learning from each other," Klump said. ✂️
However, a few years ago, Richard Major shared a video with senior author Lucy Aplin, showing a sulphur-crested cockatoo opening a closed garbage bin. The cockatoo used its beak and foot to lift the heavy lid then shuffled along the side to flip it over, accessing a rich reward of leftover food.
Cockatoos are also masters of the dance… 😄
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and the sequel, Scavengers of Mind. (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here.