Mockingbirds Recognize Humans They See Often

Since the beginning of time, people have looked at birds as being nothing more than a useful tool at times, and an annoying pest on most occasions. However, a new research comes to show that at least some birds are able to distinguish among the people they see, and can also assess which of them poses the largest threat to their safety, or to that of their offspring. The behavior was noted during a new scientific study on mockingbirds, which learned fairly fast which of the humans they came in contact with was dangerous, and which was not.

According to the research team behind the new investigation, it only took two 30-second-long exposures to an aggressive or menacing human being to teach Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) which person to watch for signs of danger in other exposures. “Mockingbirds certainly do not view all humans as equal,” the lead author of the new study, University of Florida Professor Doug Levey, says in a statement. The paper detailing the find was published in this week's issue of the respected scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

For the experiments, UF students looked for mockingbird nests, and selected one of them to touch the constructions one time per day, for four consecutive days. In the first day, the birds' responses were fairly slow, but, progressively, they got more aggressive, and started earlier, when they saw the student approaching. They even dove from the branches towards the student's hair, in a preemptive strike of sorts. However, in the fifth day, another student went on to touch the nest, and the birds' response was suddenly reduced, just like in the first day of the previous student.

This can only meant that the birds do not necessary learn to defend themselves against humans in general, but that they recognize specific individuals. They identify those who have a history of aggression towards them, but their levels of alertness towards other humans are fairly low, until the people engage in what the birds perceive as aggressive actions. During the studies, no mockingbird eggs were harmed, the UF researchers joke.

What's very weird about the new find, Levey adds, is the fact that there is no reason for the mockingbirds to be in “tune” with humans. That is to say, the two species have not lived together like, for example, horses, dogs and humans did. The research also contradicts long-standing knowledge, which states that crows, ravens and parrots have the most developed brains of all birds, Scientific American reports.