Ability Of Birds Research Articles

Evaluation of Mexican sunflower (Helianthus annus l) leaf meal as a feed ingredient in shaver brown pullets.

Abstract The use of alternative nutritional sources is an important topic for animal production such as poultry. This study examined the effect of replacing soybean meal with sunflower leaf meal in the diet of laying shaver brown pullets. A total of 30 laying birds were assigned to three treatments of 0% (as control group), 10% and 15% MSFLM inclusion. Four eggs per replicate were randomly taken for three consecutive days at two weeks interval for five times, and 18 weeks individuals were selected after 40 days of experimental time. External parameters of the eggs (egg weight, egg length, egg breadth and egg shape index, shell thickness), and body parameters (Final body weight, weight gain), feed intake and hen day production were measured. For egg length, egg breadth and shell thickness showed significant difference (p< 0.05) in from the control birds. Final body weight, weight gain, feed intake and hen day production showed comparable results with values from eggs of birds on control diet. The study revealed the ability of birds to easily utilize the nutrients in the protein sources. MSFLM utilization up to 15% in pullets’ diet revealed no detrimental effect on the performance of the laying birds and the external qualities of eggs produced.

¿Do behavioral, body and habitat features influence the cognitive performance of Sicalis flaveola?

In recent decades, the demonstration of cognitive abilities in birds has been documented and various tests have been designed to adequately evaluate their capacities. However, the results of these tests can also be influenced by aspects other than cognitive ability, such as behavioral, body and habitat characteristics. Species facing rapid and new environmental changes must express a cognitive performance that allows them to overcome obstacles through learning and acting, despite the fear of novelty. Even though Sicalis flaveola is extremely successful in disturbed environments, as with most tropical species, its behavioral flexibility and learning capacity are largely unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cognitive abilityof S. flaveola and to determine whether cognition is affected by shyness, neophobia and body condition in individuals from two populations with different degrees of urbanization in Colombia. Obstacle removal and color discrimination tests were applied to 28 individuals in captivity. Shyness and neophobia were not found to be influenced by the place of origin, body condition or sex. For obstacle removal test, shyness and neophobia affected S. flaveolalearning speed of learning, but not discrimination. The ability to discriminate was in turn affected by the speed at which the birds learned to remove obstacles, level of difficulty, and the number of attempts required to solve the test. Learning capacity in this species is confirmed.

Higher Cognitive Abilities in Birds: A Comparative Evolutionary Analysis

Higher Cognitive Abilities in Birds: A Comparative Evolutionary Analysis

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Avian forebrain processing of magnetic intensity and inclination: hippocampus, anterior forebrain Wulst and an unexpected double-dissociation

It is often neglected that the ability of birds to extract navigational information from the earth’s magnetic field can be shaped by learning and memory, which would necessarily recruit brain regions of the telencephalon that support cognitive processes. In the current study, we exploited a validated, conditioning experimental paradigm to explore the possible role of the homing pigeon hippocampal formation (HF) and anterior forebrain Wulst in the detection of variation in both magnetic field intensity and inclination. Whereas HF lesions resulted in a complete loss of intensity discrimination while sparing inclination discrimination, Wulst lesions had the opposite effect, resulting in a complete loss of inclination discrimination while sparing intensity discrimination. It is not surprising that Wulst lesions should disrupt inclination discrimination because in migratory songbirds, regions of the Wulst are known to support the geomagnetic compass, which relies on inclination. More challenging is explaining why HF should be sensitive to variation in magnetic intensity. We suggest that the observed HF sensitivity to intensity may reflect incorporation of geomagnetic irregularities (anomalies) as pigeons learn a map-like representation of familiar landmarks and landscape features. The parallel processing of magnetic intensity and inclination in the homing pigeon forebrain sets the foundation for future studies designed to better understand how cognitive processing can influence geomagnetically guided navigational behavior in birds.

The cognitive ability of birds

The cognitive ability of birds

Ecological drivers of global gradients in avian dispersal inferred from wing morphology

An organism’s ability to disperse influences many fundamental processes, from speciation and geographical range expansion to community assembly. However, the patterns and underlying drivers of variation in dispersal across species remain unclear, partly because standardised estimates of dispersal ability are rarely available. Here we present a global dataset of avian hand-wing index (HWI), an estimate of wing shape widely adopted as a proxy for dispersal ability in birds. We show that HWI is correlated with geography and ecology across 10,338 (>99%) species, increasing at higher latitudes and with migration, and decreasing with territoriality. After controlling for these effects, the strongest predictor of HWI is temperature variability (seasonality), with secondary effects of diet and habitat type. Finally, we also show that HWI is a strong predictor of geographical range size. Our analyses reveal a prominent latitudinal gradient in HWI shaped by a combination of environmental and behavioural factors, and also provide a global index of avian dispersal ability for use in community ecology, macroecology, and macroevolution.

Chickens selected for feather pecking can inhibit prepotent motor responses in a Go/No-Go task

Repetitive feather pecking (FP) where birds peck and pull out feathers of conspecifics could reflect motor impulsivity through a lack of behavioural inhibition. We assessed motor impulsivity in female chickens (n = 20) during a Go/No-Go task where birds had to peck (Go) or inhibit pecks (No-Go) appropriately to obtain a food reward, depending on visual cues in an operant chamber. Birds were selected to show divergent FP performance based on their genotype (high predisposition for FP or unselected control line) and phenotype (peckers or non-peckers). Genotype, phenotype, and its interaction did not affect the number of pre-cue responses, percentage of responses during No-Go cues (false alarms), or efficiency (number of rewards over number of responses). We present the first documentation of a Go/No-Go task to measure the ability of birds genetically and phenotypically selected for FP activity to inhibit a prepotent motor response. Results indicate that the repetitive motor action of FP does not reflect impulsivity and is not genetically linked to a lack of behavioural inhibition as measured in a Go/No-Go task.

Growth rate and locomotor performance tradeoff is not universal in birds.

Though a tradeoff between growth rate and locomotor performance has been proposed, empirical data on this relationship are still limited. Here we statistically analyze the associations of growth rate and flight ability in birds by assessing how growth rate is correlated with three wing parameters of birds: flight muscle ratio, wing aspect ratio, and wing loading. We find that fast-growing birds tended to have higher flight muscle ratios and higher wing loadings than slow-growing birds, which suggests that fast-growing birds may have better takeoff performance, but lower efficiency in maneuvering flight. Accordingly, our findings suggest that the relationship between growth rate and flight ability is more complex than a simple tradeoff. Since the hindlimbs also contribute greatly to the locomotion of birds, future investigations on the relationship between growth rate and hindlimb performance will provide more insights into the evolution of birds.

Birds of a feather? Parrot and corvid cognition compared

Abstract The last several decades of research on avian cognition have revealed surprising parallels between the abilities of birds — most notably corvids — and great apes. Parrots, albeit far less studied, are cited alongside corvids as “feathered apes”, but are these two taxa really that similar cognitively? In this review we aim to take a step back and present the broader picture, focusing on areas where there is now data from both parrots and corvids to facilitate first comparisons on a somewhat wider scale. By charting these birds’ performance in cognitive tasks, in many of which corvids perform on par with primates, we hope to highlight understudied areas and promising directions for future research. In reviewing the literature, the general pattern that emerges shows that different corvid and parrot species indeed perform similarly in a range of cognitive tasks to the extent that one may call them “feathered apes”.

Parrots have evolved a primate-like telencephalic-midbrain-cerebellar circuit

It is widely accepted that parrots show remarkable cognitive abilities. In mammals, the evolution of complex cognitive abilities is associated with increases in the size of the telencephalon and cerebellum as well as the pontine nuclei, which connect these two regions. Parrots have relatively large telencephalons that rival those of primates, but whether there are also evolutionary changes in their telencephalon-cerebellar relay nuclei is unknown. Like mammals, birds have two brainstem pontine nuclei that project to the cerebellum and receive projections from the telencephalon. Unlike mammals, birds also have a pretectal nucleus that connects the telencephalon with the cerebellum: the medial spiriform nucleus (SpM). We found that SpM, but not the pontine nuclei, is greatly enlarged in parrots and its relative size significantly correlated with the relative size of the telencephalon across all birds. This suggests that the telencephalon-SpM-cerebellar pathway of birds may play an analogous role to cortico-ponto-cerebellar pathways of mammals in controlling fine motor skills and complex cognitive processes. We conclude that SpM is key to understanding the role of telencephalon-cerebellar pathways in the evolution of complex cognitive abilities in birds.

Using Life History Data to Examine Trade-Offs in Body Size and Reproductive Ability

Life history trade-offs provide an opportunity for students to learn about concepts in ecology, evolutionary biology, and natural history. Here I present a simple activity that I created to help students use data from museums and online life history databases to explore the relationship between body size and reproductive ability in birds. This activity, which guides students in hypothesis development and testing, data collection, and statistical analysis, is applicable to students at the high school and undergraduate levels. In addition, although I focused on birds, this activity can also be applied to other taxa where life history data are available.

The influence of a probiotic supplementation on memory in quail suggests a role of gut microbiota on cognitive abilities in birds

The gut microbiota is involved in host behaviour and memory in mammals. Consequently, it may also influence emotional behaviour and memory in birds.Quail from two genetic lines with different fearfulness (LTI: long tonic immobility, n=37; STI: short tonic immobility, n=32) were either or not supplemented with a probiotic (Pediococcus acidilactici) from hatching. Emotional reactivity was measured in a tonic immobility test (d6 and 7 of age) and two open-field tests (d13–15; d22–24). Memory was measured in a test rewarded with mealworms, where quail had to remember the cups previously visited (d34–36). Quail endured a 5-days stress period from days 17 to 21 to help revealing the potentially beneficial effect of the probiotic.As expected, STI quail were less fearful compared to the LTI quail (p<0.05). Probiotic supplementation had no effect on most measures of emotional reactivity (p>0.05), except in the tonic immobility test where supplemented STI quail had lower immobility duration (p=0.0001). Regarding the memory test, the two lines had similar performances. Quail fed with probiotics made fewer errors (p=0.040). There was no significant correlation between traits of emotional reactivity and of memory.In conclusion, the supplementation with Pediococcus acidilactici as a probiotic, affected a specific trait of emotional reactivity in STI quail, and improved memory in both lines, whichstrengthens the idea that the influence of gut microbiota on the host behaviour and memory seen in mammals is shared by birds.

Cognitive performance for 2 strains of broiler birds in homogenous and mixed grouping system

Abstract Sixty-day-old chicks from the commercial broiler strain, Vencobb, and 60-day-old backyard Vanaraja chickens, were selected as experimental birds for assessing learning and cognitive performance. Learning and cognitive ability were assessed on the basis of maze trial performance, self-recognition trial (SRT), detour trial (DT), tonic immobility (TI) trial, serum leptin concentration, and encephalization quotient (EQ). The mazes were prepared by using locally available cardboard, papers, and bamboo strips. Three maze trials—T maze trial, Y maze trial, and radial maze trial—were performed. Birds were trained from the second to 10th day for maze tests. The maze test schedules started from 11th day, and data were taken 11th-17th day, 25th-31st day, and 39th-45th day in trial I, trial II, and trial III schedules, respectively. The response of birds to different maze tests and performance in different cognitive trials were assessed on the basis of latency in time to acquire the food and complete the tasks. At the end of the trials, serum leptin concentration was assayed. EQ was calculated by Jerison's formula and Cuvier's formula. Vencobb birds showed a better response to different cognitive and learning trials. In T maze trials, the Vencobb variety performed significantly better ( P P = 0.001; trial II, P = 0.001; and trial III, P = 0.01). Vencobb birds, when housed in group with Vanaraja birds, performed significantly ( P P = 0.012), trial II ( P = 0.020), and trial III ( P = 0.045). In the Y maze trial, homogeneously housed Vencobb birds performed significantly better ( P P = 0.04; trial II, P = 0.01). Vanaraja birds performed significantly ( P P = 0.10; trial II, P = 0.001; and trial III, P = 0.008). There was significant improvement ( P P = 0.012; mixed group, P = 0.010). Similarly, significant ( P P = 0.012; trial II-III, P = 0.040) and mixed housed Vanaraja birds (trial I-II, P = 0.042; trial II-III, P = 0.021). In the case of the R maze trial, Vencobb birds (homogenous) performed significantly ( P P = 0.01; trial II, P = 0.001; and trial III, P = 0.03). In homogeneous housing system, the performance of Vencobb birds was significantly better ( P P = 0.01; trial II, P = 0.001; and trial III, P = 0.001), whereas Vanaraja birds performed significantly better ( P P = 0.05; trial II, P = 0.05; and trial III, P = 0.07) and TI trial (trial I, P = 0.02; trial II, P = 0.05; and trial III, P = 0.04). In the SRT test, Vanaraja birds performed significantly better ( P P = 0.01; trial III, P = 0.01). Vencobb birds showed a significant improvement ( P P = 0.04 and P = 0.02). In mixed housing, significant improvement ( P P = 0.001). In DT, homogeneous Vencobb birds (trial I) performed significantly worse ( P P = 0.05). In case of Vanaraja birds, mixed housed birds showed significantly ( P P = 0.001) in trial I. In the TI trial, there was significant improvement ( P P = 0.04) and mixed Vanaraja birds ( P = 0.05). The EQ maximum was 2.31 in intelligent or superior birds and 1.85 in dull birds. The cognitively superior Vencobb birds showed a significantly higher level of serum leptin concentration than did the dull birds (0.78 ± 0.12 vs. 0.42 ± 0.08 ng/mL, P = 0.02), a result similar to that in Vanaraja birds (1.03 ± 0.13 vs. 0.62 ± 0.06 ng/mL, P = 0.01). It may be concluded that the genetics of the birds affects cognitive and learning ability. Mixed group housing negatively affects the cognitive abilities of birds. Jerison's formula is more highly correlated with brain weight than the traditional Cuvier's equation. With the advancement of age, spatial memory involved in gathering and processing improves.

Dietary carotenoid availability affects avian color discrimination

Carotenoid pigments are found in the retinas of many vertebrate species, where they serve a range of functions. In birds, carotenoid containing retinal oil droplets act as optical filters, modifying the light reaching the underlying visual pigment and thereby enhancing color vision. Dietary carotenoid manipulation is known to affect the allocation of carotenoids to the retina, although the effects this has on vision are less well understood. Using dietary manipulations, in which juvenile Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) received either a high- or a low-carotenoid diet, we tested the effects of carotenoid availability on the ability to perform a color discrimination task. Birds on both diet treatments were able to make a relatively coarse discrimination between colors that appeared to humans as yellow orange and orange; however, only high-carotenoid diet birds were able to make a finer-scale discrimination involving intermediate colors, showing that dietary carotenoid availability can directly affect the ability of birds to make chromatic discriminations. This finding has implications for our understanding of trade-offs in carotenoid allocation between vision and other key functions such as sexual ornamentation and health maintenance, and suggests that variation in dietary carotenoid availability may affect the ability of animals to make ecologically pertinent color discriminations, such as between sexual signals or cryptic food items.

Birding the Future

Birding the Future is a multi-layered interdisciplinary project that explores issues of species loss and biodiversity while specifically focusing on the warning abilities of birds as indicators of environmental health. It is an outdoor installation and image walk incorporating multi-channel sound, stereoscopic images, text, Morse code messages, calls of endangered and extinct bird species and a rendering of projected extinction rate. Birding the Future is a global project designed as a series of local, site-specific works.

Role of mental representations in quantity judgments by jackdaws (Corvus monedula).

The representation of quantity by the preverbal or nonverbal mind is a question of considerable interest in the study of cognition, as it should be generally adaptive to most animals to be able to distinguish quantity. We already know that some primate species and human infants represent and enumerate objects in similar ways. Considerable data also exist concerning such abilities in birds. Our aim in this study has been to find out whether jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are capable of performing relative quantity judgments based on mental representations, and if so, what are the limiting factors to their abilities. In our setting the birds were required to make a choice between two visibly and sequentially placed set of food items which, at the moment of choice were not visible to the subjects. We investigated all the number combinations between 1 and 5. Our results show that jackdaws are able to perform relative quantity judgments successfully, even when temporal cues are controlled for, whereas their performance declines in the direction of larger set size (numerical size effect), and when the difference between the two arrays decreases (numerical distance and ratio effect). These signatures are usually interpreted as evidence for the "accumulator" model of mental representation of quantity. Our control results suggest that jackdaws do not use temporal cues, but may well use total volume as basis for discrimination, perhaps among other attributes (choice may be based on multiple cues).

Nocturnal hypothermia impairs flight ability in birds: a cost of being cool

Many birds use regulated drops in night-time body temperature (Tb) to conserve energy critical to winter survival. However, a significant degree of hypothermia may limit a bird's ability to respond to predatory attack. Despite this likely energy-predation trade-off, the behavioural costs of avian hypothermia have yet to be examined. We thus monitored the nocturnal hypothermia of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in a laboratory setting in response to food deprivation. Nocturnal flight tests were used to quantify the flight ability of hypothermic doves. Many hypothermic doves (39% of tests) could not fly while carrying a small weight, but could do so after quickly warming up to typical daytime Tb. Doves that were unable to fly during their first test were more hypothermic than those that could fly, with average Tb reductions of 5.3°C and 3.3°C, respectively, but there was no overall indication of a threshold Tb reduction beyond which doves were consistently incapable of flight. These results suggest that energy-saving hypothermia interferes with avian antipredator behaviour via a reduction in flight ability, likely leading to a trade-off between energy-saving hypothermia and the risk of predation.

Avian Cerebellar Floccular Fossa Size Is Not a Proxy for Flying Ability in Birds

Extinct animal behavior has often been inferred from qualitative assessments of relative brain region size in fossil endocranial casts. For instance, flight capability in pterosaurs and early birds has been inferred from the relative size of the cerebellar flocculus, which in life protrudes from the lateral surface of the cerebellum. A primary role of the flocculus is to integrate sensory information about head rotation and translation to stabilize visual gaze via the vestibulo-occular reflex (VOR). Because gaze stabilization is a critical aspect of flight, some authors have suggested that the flocculus is enlarged in flying species. Whether this can be further extended to a floccular expansion in highly maneuverable flying species or floccular reduction in flightless species is unknown. Here, we used micro computed-tomography to reconstruct “virtual” endocranial casts of 60 extant bird species, to extract the same level of anatomical information offered by fossils. Volumes of the floccular fossa and entire brain cavity were measured and these values correlated with four indices of flying behavior. Although a weak positive relationship was found between floccular fossa size and brachial index, no significant relationship was found between floccular fossa size and any other flight mode classification. These findings could be the result of the bony endocranium inaccurately reflecting the size of the neural flocculus, but might also reflect the importance of the flocculus for all modes of locomotion in birds. We therefore conclude that the relative size of the flocculus of endocranial casts is an unreliable predictor of locomotor behavior in extinct birds, and probably also pterosaurs and non-avian dinosaurs.

Fundamental avian energetics: 2. The ability of birds to change heat loss and explanation of the mass exponent for basal metabolism in homeothermic animals

The maximum ability of birds to generate heat due to increasing metabolism, as a result of both activity and heat stress, was determined in relation to the evaporative and nonevaporative heat losses at vari� ous temperatures in passerines and nonpasserines at the beginning and at the end of thermoneutral zones. The minimum (hmin) and maximum (hmax) nonevaporative thermal conductances in both species change similarly depending on the body mass, and the slopes of regression lines in hmin and hmax are identical. At the same time, hmax is approximately four times higher than hmin. Experimental data obtained both in this study and by other authors show that the ratio hmax/hmin = 4 is constant for all homeothermic animals and appears to be a sensible compromise found by the evolution between an increase in activity and the minimum effectiveness profitable for life of the transfer of metabolic power into mechanical power (α = 1/4) during its fulfillment. An increase in the ratio hmax/hmin, although it allows an animal to augment its daily activity, leads to a reduc� tion in the effectiveness and is, therefore, not used by homeothermic animals. The abilities of birds and mam� mals to change their heat loss are determined by the ratio h max /h min = 4, which is an integrated indicator of the level of development of blood circulation and respiration systems and the degree of development of exter� nal covers, as well as the ability of both to change heat loss. In homeothermic animals, this ratio is associated with the body mass exponent in allometric dependences for basal metabolism and determines the efficiency of transfer of metabolic power into mechanical work.