Imprinting (1 Viewer)

[JEiche]

Once a bird imprints, can it be broken?

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum.

I believe imprinting is for life.

 

[Lisa W]

Hi again, since you already have a post in the hello forum I’m moving this to another forum where you might get some good answers.

 

[jurek]

If I remember well, sometimes it can sometimes it does not. But not all birds imprint or imprint strongly.

 

[gerald762]

Presumably cuckoos don´t imprint at all?

 

[jurek]

Common cuckoos, of course, don't imprint on their parents. Cuckoo females allegedly learn to lay egg in the same nest as they grew up. But sometimes one gets unusual cuckoos (e.g. one parasitizing only Whinchats) so they must sometimes switch. I think the general image of a fast and unbreakable imprinting is rather the extreme end of a whole spectrum of learning.

There is a small organization now in Poland now which rescues nests of waders and gulls threatened by floods and predators, raises chicks and releases them. And at last some of these birds (identified by rings) complete their normal migration, return and breed successfully, so their behavior must be largely instinctive.