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Are birds social with different species? (1 Viewer)

Cryper

Member
Hi,

I noticed there are some birds that will hang out with birds of another species like a rock pigeon and I think house sparrows. I was wondering what dictates this behavior between birds? Is there some benefit to one another or are birds actually social with one another?
 
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

One of the best examples is co-operative hunting between Harriers (ground attack predator) and Merlins (aerial pursuit predator) - if a bird flies to escape the Harrier, the Merlin gets it; if the bird crouches down to escape the Merlin, the Harrier gets it.

Other times, they're just both attracted by the same food source, that's likely what's happening with the Feral Pigeon / House Sparrow flocks.
 
A lot of passerines have similar 'predator alert' calls and strength in numbers cuts across the species barriers - a sole bird of one species can latch onto a group of another.

In the UK Little Egret can follow eg shallow swimming Cormorant to pick up disturbed prey.
 
A lot of passerines have similar 'predator alert' calls and strength in numbers cuts across the species barriers - a sole bird of one species can latch onto a group of another.

Classic US examples are the mixed “winter“ flocks of small insectivores. Ones that I’ve encountered recently at my local patch in Oregon have variously consisted of up to 6 species: Black-capped Chickadees (always, as the core), Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Bewick’s Wrens, Downy Woodpeckers.
 
Classic US examples are the mixed “winter“ flocks of small insectivores. Ones that I’ve encountered recently at my local patch in Oregon have variously consisted of up to 6 species: Black-capped Chickadees (always, as the core), Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Bewick’s Wrens, Downy Woodpeckers.

Similarly, it's common to see large mixed flocks of ground-feeding birds - mostly taking seeds but the group size helps catch insects, as well as provide cooperative defense. On lawns in the Northeastern US, especially in fall, you'll have large groups of grackles mixing freely with blackbirds, often joined by starlings, rubbing elbows with robins (T. migratorius) , plus various sparrows will follow along and dart in when one of the larger birds scares up a small insect.

Beyond mere species, birds will engage in similar opportunistic feeding behavior with large herbivores, and also humans, farm machinery, and fishing boats. It's not so easy to define "being social"...
 
Similarly, it's common to see large mixed flocks of ground-feeding birds - mostly taking seeds but the group size helps catch insects, as well as provide cooperative defense. On lawns in the Northeastern US, especially in fall, you'll have large groups of grackles mixing freely with blackbirds, often joined by starlings, rubbing elbows with robins (T. migratorius) , plus various sparrows will follow along and dart in when one of the larger birds scares up a small insect.

Beyond mere species, birds will engage in similar opportunistic feeding behavior with large herbivores, and also humans, farm machinery, and fishing boats. It's not so easy to define "being social"...

I know when certain animals are happy because they can express it like dogs or chimpanzees, but couldn't figure out if birds displayed their emotions with one another, it seems like all their behavior is based off survival tactics of one or another. Then i hear stories of birds that land on a people yards consistently or even their shoulders or heads, or that dance to attract a mate. I just began wondering about their social nature when I noticed the pigeons and the sparrows. But thank you for all the great answers to everyone on this thread.
 
I would argue that all behavior, and all emotion, including the very expressive happiness of humans and dogs, is ultimately based on survival. Dogs being a good example: we humans created dog breeds that express happiness like mad, because that's what we like.

Many species of animals can't afford to be so expressive - they have to be somewhat stealthy to survive. But mostly we humans just don't know how to read the expressions of most other animals. Still, it's not too hard to think of examples where animals behave towards their mates, or their young, in ways that are hard to distinguish from human affection. Many species of parrots, for example, spend more time grooming their mates than would make sense if they were simply looking for ticks or other food.

One way to get a bird to hang around a member of another species is for that other species to be present when the bird hatches. Look up the old films of Konrad Lorenz...
 
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I'd think that a bird's life consists of a range of emotions ranging at one end from what we would consider as severe anxiety (on a good day) to outright terror at the other end if it's to survive.
 
I don't know about interspecies friends, but a number of local critter and bird species seem to think I'm one of them. The local Cooper's hawk pair, then their chicks, began enthusiastically greeting me on sight, when I went outside..even when I was walking down a housing division street to reach the desert arroyo where I hike.

The 3-foot wingspan females, and the slightly smaller males fly straight at my head, do a half-roll, blasting compressed air across my face, then peel off and fly straight away from me. Or, often, landing next to me, or nearby.

The same for the local Chinhaha raven pair which tried to feed me, to teach me to fly alongside their chicks, would fly to my house with the chicks after they fledged, all circling my head, talking to me in croaks and gurgles, much of which I learned to translate.

All the male greater roadrunners in the arroyo valley greet me as I pass, doing bill clatters and often walking beside me to the edge of their territories. They'd dance, swinging and fanning their tails, bring me grasshoppers and whiptail lizards, and the male that lives near me would come to my sliding glass door to check on me if I was late to go hiking (I'm a recovering cancer patient who mostly stays in my bedroom when not out hiking).
 
This is a fascinating topic.

I have observed the following behaviors in waterfowl and shorebirds - most species have a tendency to form mixed flocks in feeding situations as well as in migratory and roosting situations. However, there are species such as American Woodcock that do not seem to socially interact with other bird species (although this species is difficult to observe frequently and for long duration), but they certainly are unlikely to intermingle with any other species of shorebird/wader. You also see large rookeries of herons and ibis, as well as mixed nesting site selection of shorebirds/waders up on the northern tundra, as well as mixed gull and tern colonies on marshlands. Each species in the mix provides SOMETHING of service to the other species involved in the congregation. Sometimes it is much more clear than others what the delegation of roles among species are. For example, back home in New Jersey out on the saltmarshes during the breeding season you have mixed nesting colonies of Laughing gulls, Forster's Terns and Common Terns. At my local patch in the far southern part of New Jersey in Cape May Co, Common Terns are the more abundant nesting species as compared to Forster's Tern, which is the opposite of most of the New Jersey marshland habitats. Within these mixed colonies, the Common Terns nest around the perimeter of Laughing Gull colonies pretty much exclusively. The Terns are very aggressive, more so than the Forster's Terns. The Laughing Gulls seem to be the 'stronghold' of their city whereas the Terns are sort of the defenders of the castle wall. Upon deterring an intruder, the terns will venture out away from the nests to ward off intruders before they get close, but in the event that a predator were to approach closely, the larger and more powerful laughing gulls are prepared to defend as well. The combination of these deterrents is far more effective than one method without the other for pretty intuitive reasons. This is certainly a very prevalent intra species social gathering. You will see terns and gulls interacting directly, often squabbling with one another, and Laughing Gulls will even very rarely eat unattended Common Tern chicks. I wouldn't really say that they get along, but they leave each other be for the most part, presumably unless territory boundaries are tested, which happens pretty regularly being how close they are packed together.

A few years ago, we even had a very strange occurrence of a beach nesting species, Royal Tern, nesting and laying an egg amongst a mixed Common Tern x Laughing Gull colony. To my knowledge this is possibly undocumented and at best extremely rarely observed. Common Terns will mostly nest on the beaches of New Jersey and NOT in the marshes, which creates an unusual opportunity for study in the southern part of Cape May county, and gets even more interesting with the rare introduction of a Royal Tern into the marshland colonies. This is perhaps one of the only places where this even could happen, where a Royal Tern would nest in a mixed Laughing Gull colony, I am really not sure what the breeding status and distribution of Common Terns is like elsewhere to the south of Cape May. Cape May is about as far north as Royal Tern has been recorded breeding to my knowledge. Make no mistake, the Laughing Gull is the king species of the colony. Like I said, the stronghold, they get the highest ground, or the most protected interior sections of the colony as compared to the terns.

There was also a case where I observed a family group of banded Red Knots on the beach in Brigantine, NJ. This family group had been banded together on the same date 6 years prior to my resighting of their leg bands. In total there were approximately 10 birds in a flock together. Of those 10 birds, 3 were banded 6 years prior together on the same date at the same location, indicating that they had formed a long-term migratory travel family group.

Furthermore, it has become apparent to me through observational experience that the best strategy that I have employed to find a migrant Golden-winged Warbler or a hybrid is to find a Blue-winged Warbler and just keep diligently looking around its vicinity. Likewise, to find a hybrid backcross, if you find a single Golden-winged or Blue-winged migrant be diligent and keep searching the vicinity closely, and the inverse is true as well in the aiding of finding a hybrid backcross. These birds also seem as if they are extremely likely to travel in migratory family flock.
 
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