{"id":13714,"date":"2012-10-15T13:28:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T17:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/?p=13714"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:06:09","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:06:09","slug":"the-bold-and-the-bashful-the-personalities-of-backyard-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/the-bold-and-the-bashful-the-personalities-of-backyard-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bold and the Bashful: the Personalities of Backyard Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><div class=\"article-list list-style alignright\"><h2 class=\"article-list-header\">More From Living Bird<\/h2><ul><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/paradise2c.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/paradise2c-720x329.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/paradise2c-768x351.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/paradise2c-480x219.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/paradise2c.jpg 918w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Greater Bird-of-Paradise by Tim Laman\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Autumn 2012\u2014Table of Contents<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird-latest issue\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine\u2014Latest Issue<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-article\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird archives\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine Archives<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n<span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n    <span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" id=\"hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n        <!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]-->\r\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da.png\"  alt=\"subscribe to Living Bird magazine\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\r\n    <\/span>\r\n    <script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script>\r\n    <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n        hbspt.cta.load(95627, '096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da', {});\r\n    <\/script>\r\n<\/span>\r\n<!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Spend enough time watching chickadees at your feeder, and you might start to recognize individuals by their behavior. Maybe one chickadee acts like a little tyrant, monopolizing all the food. Another chickadee might have a penchant for skulking timidly on the outskirts.<\/p>\n<p>If you think feeder birds have personalities, you\u2019re not imagining things. In recent years biologists have tested animal personality in everything from mammals to mollusks, showing that individuals really do have consistent differences in behavior. But we\u2019re still learning why those differences matter in the wild. What\u2019s the point of having a shy personality, for instance, if it makes you miss out on a meal?<\/p>\n<p>A European bird called the Great Tit\u2014which looks like a chickadee dressed up in a yellow vest\u2014recently shed some light on that question. When Oxford biologist John Quinn and colleagues experimented with a wild population of 156 individually tagged Great Tits, they found that being shy isn\u2019t always a bad thing, according to their paper in <em>The Proceedings of the Royal Society<\/em>. First, Quinn identified each bird\u2019s personality type by testing how many hops and flights it used to explore an artificial space. He knew from previous studies that this behavior would be a good measure of overall personality: the slapdash explorers tend to be bold and reckless, whereas the slow-but-thorough explorers are usually timid.<\/p>\n<p>Once he had gauged the birds\u2019 personalities, Quinn wanted to see how they behaved in the great outdoors. So he set up two bird feeders 30 feet apart in the woods, putting one in a \u201cdangerous\u201d spot out in the open. The second feeder went in a \u201csafe\u201d spot near dense shrubbery, where the Great Tits could hide from Eurasian Sparrowhawks.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn stocked the safe feeder with whole peanuts and put less-appetizing nut granules in the dangerous feeder. He kept track of how much time individual birds spent at each feeder in the morning, when they were hungriest, and in the afternoon, when they were less hungry. Unsurprisingly, most birds visited the safer and more enticing food source, regardless of the time of day\u2014until Quinn pulled a switch.<\/p>\n<p>He swapped the desirable food into the dangerous feeder, forcing the Great Tits to make a choice between eating well and being safe. Quinn found that the two personality types approached this predation-starvation tradeoff in opposite ways. Adventurous birds risked their necks to fill their stomachs. But cautious birds stuck with the sheltered feeder even in the morning, risking starvation to stay safe. \u201cIt\u2019s the first evidence, really, that they handle these risks differently in the wild,\u201d Quinn says.<\/p>\n<p>Both strategies have advantages, in theory. A shy bird is more likely than its bolder compatriots to die of starvation when food is scarce. But the same bird in an exposed site is less likely to wind up as a sparrowhawk\u2019s lunch. Andr\u00e9 Dhondt, director of Bird Population Studies at the Cornell Lab, says that the world is an uncertain place for a Great Tit, full of shifting dangers. That\u2019s why both adventurous and cautious birds survive in a population.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group legacy-sidebar sidebar-alignright has-lightgray-background-color has-background\">\n<h4>References<\/h4>\n<p>Quinn, J.L., E.F. Cole, J. Bates, R. W. Payne, and W. Cresswell. 2011. Personality predicts individual responsiveness to the risks of starvation and predation. <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Quinn has not yet tested whether these survival behaviors are actually translating into life or death for the Great Tits. But he does know from previous research that Great Tit personalities are partly hereditary, which suggests that each bird\u2019s behavior choice\u2014whether to venture forth or stay hidden\u2014has been molded by natural selection.<\/p>\n<p>So the next time you see a shy chickadee getting edged out at a feeder, don\u2019t worry too much: it just might be shy for a reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spend enough time watching chickadees at your feeder, and you might start to recognize individuals by their behavior. Maybe one chickadee acts like a little tyrant, monopolizing all the food.<a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/the-bold-and-the-bashful-the-personalities-of-backyard-birds\/\" title=\"ReadThe Bold and the Bashful: the Personalities of Backyard Birds\">&#8230; Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc":0,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc_title":"","_birdpress_featured_image":false,"_birdpress_hero_toggle":false,"_birdpress_hero_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_image_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_style":"default","_birdpress_hero_ratio":"","_birdpress_hero_h1":"","_birdpress_hero_media_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_media_array_id":[],"_birdpress_hero_media_array":[],"_birdpress_hero_media":0,"_birdpress_hero_video_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_video":0,"_birdpress_hero_youtube":"","_birdpress_hero_content":true,"_birdpress_hero_byline":"","_birdpress_hero_byline_bottom":"","_birdpress_hero_button_link":"","_birdpress_hero_button_text":"","_birdpress_hero_button_color":"","_birdpress_hero_date":false,"original_guid":"","_birdpress_hide_search":false,"_birdpress_page_width":"","_birdpress_global_cta":false,"_birdpress_widget_sidebar":"","_birdpress_next_article":0,"_birdpress_next_article_title":"","_birdpress_prev_article":0,"_birdpress_prev_article_title":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_sub_navigation":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_title":false,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation":"","_birdpress_postType":"both","_birdpress_categoryID":0,"_birdpress_tagID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostTitle":"","_birdpress_menuID":0,"_birdpress_menuName":"","_birdpress_listHeader":"","_birdpress_listLayout":"card-display","_birdpress_listColumns":"","_birdpress_maxItems":12,"_birdpress_listPaginate":true,"_birdpress_displaySort":true,"_birdpress_sortOrder":"DESC","_birdpress_sortBy":"date","_birdpress_listID":"","_birdpress_listClass":"","_birdpress_displayImages":true,"_birdpress_displayCaptions":false,"_birdpress_displayExcerpts":false,"_birdpress_attTop":"","_birdpress_attBottom":"","_birdpress_showLogos":false,"_birdpress_post_logo":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_topic":0,"wds_primary_content-format":0,"wds_primary_cornell-lab-project":0,"wds_primary_host-project":0,"wds_primary_read-more-tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[999,992],"content-format":[1055],"cornell-lab-project":[1069],"host-project":[],"read-more-tag":[],"class_list":["post-13714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-basics","topic-bird-id-skills","content-format-article","cornell-lab-project-living-bird-magazine"],"metadata":{"associated-posts":[""],"wpa_off":[""],"_edit_lock":["1601384789:1"],"_edit_last":["1"],"_thumbnail_id":["13715"],"wdsi_message_id":[""],"wdsi_do_not_show":[""],"custom-byline":["<h5 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