Migrating great tits learn from birds already on the scene

In some fascinating research involving training birds, scientists have added to our understanding of social learning in animal groups.

Immigration, it seems, is a major driver of social learning in wild great tits (Parus major), a small songbird that can learn new behaviours from others of its species.

A new PLOS Biology study has found great tits pay even closer attention to others when entering a new social group in an unfamiliar environment.

They had to train birds so they could observe and understand behavioural patterns.

The finding supports a long-held assumption about animal behaviour – that migrating animals use social learning to learn from resident populations in a new environment, instead of risking figuring things out themselves.

“Social learning is a great shortcut when it comes to safely testing new waters,” says Dr Michael Chimento, lead author of the study from University of Konstanz, Germany.

“Paying attention to what others are doing gives you the chance to see whether a new behavior is beneficial, or potentially dangerous. Copying it means that you too can reap the reward.”

To investigate the effect of immigration on great tit learning behaviour, the team trained social groups of wild-caught birds to access food from a puzzle box. The birds had to either push a door left or right. 

They transferred right-pushing birds into aviaries where the residents used the left-hand solution, and vice versa.

In some groups, the newcomers also discovered that residents scored a superior food reward by using their alternative method. And in some, the visual environment of the aviary was also changed by altering the type of foliage present.

In trials where the new aviary’s foliage was different and altered the birds’ visual environment, 80% of newcomers switched their method of opening the puzzle box immediately upon being released into the new aviary and used the resident’s solution on their first try.

Chimento says that this makes a compelling case that social learning was at play.

“Of course, we can’t ask the birds exactly where they were getting their information from,” says Chimento, “but these behavioural patterns are striking enough to suggest that the birds were watching residents very closely from the moment they entered their new social group.”

But when the foliage matched their original aviary, only 25% of the newcomers tried the resident solution on the first attempt, even when locals were earning better food.

“They didn’t necessarily ignore the residents, but they took much longer to all switch over to the more rewarding solution,” says Chimento.

“Our analyses suggested this was because they weren’t as influenced by the residents.”

This is the first experimental evidence to show the powerful impact that immigration has on how animals learn from each other.

“In nature, animals are often moving from one environment to another,” says the study’s senior author Lucy Aplin, a professor at the Australian National University and the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

“So, it’s helpful to have a strategy to weed out what are good and bad behaviours to use in the new place.

“Our study provided the experimental evidence to show that this is what happens in real life.”