Collective decision making and social interaction rules in mixed-species flocks of songbirds.

ABSTRACT: Associations in mixed-species foraging groups are common in animals, yet have rarely been explored in the context of collective behaviour. Despite many investigations into the social and ecological conditions under which individuals should form groups, we still know little about the specific behavioural rules that individuals adopt in these contexts, or whether these can be generalized to heterospecifics. Here, we studied collective behaviour in flocks in a community of five species of woodland passerine birds. We adopted an automated data collection protocol, involving visits by RFID-tagged birds to feeding stations equipped with antennae, over two winters, recording 91 576 feeding events by 1904 individuals. We demonstrated highly synchronized feeding behaviour within patches, with birds

SUBMITTER: Farine DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4157325 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature