For The Birds

Interesting:

A study of chickadees and nuthatches has revealed the first example of one species of bird being able to interpret details of the warning signals used by another.

Many animals sound the alarm when they spot predators. While these alarms are specifically directed to nearby kin, numerous studies have shown that unrelated species frequently recognise and respond too. But in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Christopher Templeton and Erick Greene at the University of Washington, Seattle, demonstrated that sometimes these eavesdroppers can be quite discriminatory.

"No one has ever seen this behaviour before. There are a fair number of animals that respond to other animal's alarm calls. But this is the first example of subtle information from a call being interpreted by another species," said Templeton. "Nuthatches can tell if a raptor poses a high or low danger from the chickadee's alarm call."

We've got loads of nuthatches and chickadees on the grounds of Orgle Manor. Far from sophisticated predatory warning intel, I think if you translated the calls they make around our feeder, you'd get something more like this:

- Hey, quit shoving!
- Well I was here first!
- Were not!
-Was too!

- Hey, didja see the squirrel try to climb on the Yankee Flipper? HA-ha!