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Carl T. Bergstrom (ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:34 JST Carl T. Bergstrom

Willet borrowing Andrew Wyeth's pallet.
#birdphotography
In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:34 JST from fediscience.org permalink
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1. Elegant grey shorebird on an elegant grey beach.
  https://fediscience.org/system/media_attachments/files/111/791/504/136/587/804/original/fdbbe6953f7ed31e.jpeg
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  Corina Logan (she/her) (corinalogan@nerdculture.de)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:28 JST Corina Logan (she/her)
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  #1 Grackle vs Crow -Aesops Fable water tube tests
  - Heavy vs light: most grackles & all crows preferred to drop functional heavy objects. Score 1:1
  - Wide vs narrow: no grackles had a tube preference, while most crows preferred to drop objects into the functional wide tube. Score: 1:2
  Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5rHHb52vAs. I ran these tests on great-tailed grackles & New Caledonian crows using similar methods & apparatuses. #TheGrackleProject
  GTGR: https://peerj.com/articles/1975
  Crow: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103049
  In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:28 JST permalink
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  1. See How These Birds Solve Tricky Puzzles | National Geographic
    
    from National Geographic
    
    A type of blackbird has been shown to modify its behavior to solve problems. The great-tailed grackle's range has expanded north through Mexico and into the ...
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    Behavioral flexibility and problem solving in an invasive bird
    
    Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop’s Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments.
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    Modifications to the Aesop's Fable Paradigm Change New Caledonian Crow Performances
    
    While humans are able to understand much about causality, it is unclear to what extent non-human animals can do the same. The Aesop's Fable paradigm requires an animal to drop stones into a water-filled tube to bring a floating food reward within reach. Rook, Eurasian jay, and New Caledonian crow performances are similar to those of children under seven years of age when solving this task. However, we know very little about the cognition underpinning these birds' performances. Here, we address several limitations of previous Aesop's Fable studies to gain insight into the causal cognition of New Caledonian crows. Our results provide the first evidence that any non-human animal can solve the U-tube task and can discriminate between water-filled tubes of different volumes. However, our results do not provide support for the hypothesis that these crows can infer the presence of a hidden causal mechanism. They also call into question previous object-discrimination performances. The methodologies outlined here should allow for more powerful comparisons between humans and other animal species and thus help us to determine which aspects of causal cognition are distinct to humans.
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  Corina Logan (she/her) (corinalogan@nerdculture.de)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:30 JST Corina Logan (she/her)
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  - cobalt
  Hi @ct_bergstrom and @cobalt Thanks for inspiring a thread on grackle vs crow cognition! It turns out that the grackles are quite the contenders - sometimes their performance is the same as crows, sometimes worse, and sometimes better. Here are the details…
  #TheGrackleProject
  
  In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:30 JST permalink
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  Carl T. Bergstrom (ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:31 JST Carl T. Bergstrom
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  - cobalt
  - Corina Logan (she/her)
  @cobalt Grackles are fascinating. Ecologically, they are very similar to corvids. My friend @CorinaLogan studies their cognitive abilities compared to corvids and the bottom line is: it's bleak.
  Still, I love them.
  Also roadrunners and woodpeckers — what fun!
  
  In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:31 JST permalink
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  cobalt (cobalt@awscommunity.social)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:33 JST cobalt
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  @ct_bergstrom I was channeling you while I was trying to get shots of the roadrunner, grackles and woodpecker in Patagonia, AZ this week. Decided grackles really have little class next to your corvids. This willet is in wonderful light here.
  
  In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:33 JST permalink
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  Corina Logan (she/her) (corinalogan@nerdculture.de)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:47 JST Corina Logan (she/her)
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  #2 Grackle vs Crow - Stick tool use
  Grackles didn't spontaneously use a stick to obtain food from a hole, while crows did.
  Score 1:3
  This isn't surprising bc New Caledonian crows make & use tools in the wild, while grackles do not. However, after this article came out, someone in Texas said they see grackles using sticks to pull dead bugs out from the base of the car’s windshield. Mb pop diffs in grackle tool use?
  Grackle https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160247
  Crow https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.04.007
  #TheGrackleProject
  In conversation Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 06:53:47 JST permalink
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