Tag: bird brains

Winter is a season when most of us spend more of our time indoors. But wild animals don’t have that option. Not only must they find ways to keep warm all winter, but they have to work harder to find food. That’s why so many songbirds take advantage of the seeds and suet supplied by us humans at our bird feeders. We do the work for them.

Over many years, I’ve learned which birds to expect at the feeders in our backyard. We host finches, sparrows, magpies, and doves year-round. In winter, we also see a lot of Black-capped Chickadees, American Goldfinches, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Pine Siskins. Those are species that spend the warmer months in the forested mountains near our home, then come down for the winter into town, where they know it’s easier to find food.

But other songbirds we only see a few times a year – ones that seem to survive just fine in the winter woods. That got me to wondering: How are they able to do that while others can’t or won’t? One survival strategy is to nibble all winter on food that they stored in the fall. It’s called seed-caching – that’s c-a-c-h-e, like the valley around Logan.

You may have heard of seed-caching by the Clark’s Nutcracker, well-known for its habit of burying the large seeds of limber pine and pinyon pine for later use. But that approach only works if you can remember where you stashed food a few months ago. Clark’s Nutcrackers are in the same family as crows, ravens, and jays – birds renowned for their cleverness, with a larger front part of their brains than other perching birds. What about smaller songbirds with tinier brains? Do they have good memories, too?

For some northern Utah songbirds that don’t rely as much on feeders, the answer seems to be “Yes.” They gather seeds, dried berries, and dead insects in the fall, and stash them under bark or in crevices in tree trunks for later use. These seed-caching birds include the Red-breasted Nuthatch, Juniper Titmouse, and Mountain Chickadee.

You might be wondering: “Wait, there’s two different kinds of chickadee? How are they different?” Well they’re pretty similar. The Mountain Chickadee’s song and call are a bit higher-pitched, and they sport a cute little white “eyebrow” that black-caps don’t have. And despite having a brain slightly larger than a pea, they have great memories.

Recently, some biologists conducted an ingenious experiment. They put radio tags on Mountain Chickadees, then hung out seed feeders equipped with radio frequency readers that would only open to certain individuals. That meant each bird would have to learn for itself which feeders were food sources for them. Then the scientists tracked how often the little critters would find the right feeders, and how long it took them to remember which ones to visit. For most individuals, it didn’t take long at all.

Then the researchers switched things up, changing the radio frequencies so the birds had to re-learn where they could find seeds. It turned out that the birds who learned fastest the first time had the most difficulty adjusting to the change. The scientists think this shows that it’s memory, and not exploratory foraging, that guides their feeding behavior.

Mountain Chickadees can live up to nine years, a long time for such a tiny bird. Having a good long-term memory helps them do that. I think that’s pretty awesome – even if it does keep them from visiting my feeders every winter.

I’m Mark Brunson, and I’m wild about Utah’s endlessly fascinating bird life.

Credits:

Images Mountain Chickadee, Courtesy US FWS, Anna Weyers Blades, Photographer
Red-breasted Nuthatch, & Clark’s Nutcracker, Courtesy US FWS, Dave Menke, Photographer
Pine Siskin, Courtesy US FWS, Courtney Celley, Photographer
Image Mountain Chickadee, Courtesy Pixabay, BlenderTimer a.k.a.Daniel Roberts, Contributor, https://pixabay.com/photos/mountain-chickadee-bird-animal-9971732/
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Mark Brunson, https://www.usu.edu/experts/profile/mark-brunson/
Additional Reading: Mark Brunson, https://www.usu.edu/experts/profile/mark-brunson/ & Lyle Bingham, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading

Mark Brunson’s archive: https://wildaboututah.org/?s=brunson

Mountain Chickadee. All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Chickadee/overview

Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why. Nevada Today, April 24, 2024. https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2024/chickadee-memory-genetic-tradeoffs

Greene, Jack, Bird Brains,, Wild About Utah, September 6, 2017, https://wildaboututah.org/bird-brains/

Greene, Jack, Clark’s Nutcracker, Wild About Utah, January 7, 2019, https://wildaboututah.org/clarks-nutcracker/

Hutson, Matthew. 2024. The Elephantine Memories of Food-Caching Birds. The New Yorker, Dec. 29, 2024. https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-elephantine-memories-of-food-caching-birds

Where is that bird going with that seed? It’s caching food for later. All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, April 13, 2016. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/where-is-that-bird-going-with-that-seed-its-caching-food-for-later/

Ye, Yvaine, Goda, Nicholas, Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why, CU Boulder Today, University of Colorado Boulder, April 17, 2024, https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/04/17/mountain-chickadees-have-remarkable-memories-new-study-explains-why

Cox, Sophie, The brain science of tiny birds with amazing memories, Duke Research Blog, Duke University, via Phys.org/Science X Network, March 27, 2023, https://phys.org/news/2023-03-brain-science-tiny-birds-amazing.html

Cache Valley Winter Backyard Birds, Bridgerland Audubon Society, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BAS-ChristmasBirdCount-TallySheetV1.1.pdf