If it ain’t broke don’t fix it: Breeding success affects nest-building decisions

Camacho-Alpízar, Andrés; Eckersley, Tristan; Lambert, Connor T.; Balasubramanian, Gopika; Guillette, Lauren M.

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104336

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…These features suggest that weavers do not follow simple, unlearned rules but may learn and alter their construction behavior with experience (Walsh et al 2010(Walsh et al , 2011(Walsh et al , 2013. Furthermore, laboratory-based experiments with zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) have demonstrated that birds learn from their building experiences (Sargent 1965;Muth and Healy 2011;Edwards et al 2020;Camacho-Alpízar et al 2021). Zebra finches build domed nests out of grasses and twigs in the wild that are typical of estrildine finches (Zann 1996), the male is the primary builder, and zebra finches readily build in captivity using a variety of materials (Bailey et al 2014;Muth and Healy 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do sex differences in construction behavior relate to differences in physical cognitive abilities?

et al. 2021

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Nest-building behaviour in birds may be particularly relevant to investigating the evolution of physical cognition, as nest building engages cognitive mechanisms for the use and manipulation of materials. We hypothesized that nest-building ecology may be related to physical cognitive abilities. To test our hypothesis, we used zebra finches, which have sex-differentiated roles in nest building. We tested 16 male and 16 female zebra finches on three discrimination tasks in the following order: length discrimination, flexibility discrimination, and color discrimination, using different types of string. We predicted that male zebra finches, which select and deposit the majority of nesting material and are the primary nest builders in this species, would learn to discriminate string length and flexibility-structural traits relevant to nest building-in fewer trials compared to females, but that the sexes would learn color discrimination (not structurally relevant to nest building) in a similar number of trials. Contrary to these predictions, male and female zebra finches did not differ in their speed to learn any of the three tasks. There was, however, consistent among-individual variation in performance: learning speed was positively correlated across the tasks. Our findings suggest that male and female zebra finches either (1) do not differ in their physical cognitive abilities, or (2) any cognitive sex differences in zebra finches are more specific to tasks more closely associated with nest building. Our experiment is the first to examine the potential evolutionary relationship between nest building and physical cognitive abilities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do sex differences in construction behavior relate to differences in physical cognitive abilities?

et al. 2021

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“…Thus, their social learning coupled with their proven tractability as a study system, together also positions zebra finches as a powerful model to investigate cultural processes associated with nest construction, and animal material technology in general. That two of the cuttingedge tracking tools [33,38], detailed above, were streamlined in zebra finches (figure 2a), strengthens this suggestion, as does the documented flexibility to study the nest-construction behaviour of zebra finches in both laboratory and field conditions (recent empirical examples: [27,43,44,[46][47][48][49][50][51]; figure 2c).…”

Section: One Potential Model 'Cultural' Systemmentioning

confidence: 76%

Animal culture research should include avian nest construction

Breen

2021

Biol. Lett.

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Material culture—that is, group-shared and socially learned object-related behaviour(s)—is a widespread and diverse phenomenon in humans. For decades, researchers have sought to confirm the existence of material culture in non-human animals; however, the main study systems of interest—namely, tool making and/or using non-human primates and corvids—cannot provide such confirmatory evidence: because long-standing ethical and logistical constraints handicap the collection of necessary experimental data. Synthesizing evidence across decades and disciplines, here, I present a novel framework for (mechanistic, developmental, behavioural, and comparative) study on animal material culture: avian nest construction.

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“…The choice of nest materials may be important for reproduction and for the risk of nest and adult predation, and may thus have great evolutionary potential to respond to selective pressures (Perez et al, 2020). We should therefore utilize the extra information available by identifying the specific items used (e.g., Briggs & Deeming, 2021, Briggs & Deeming, 2016; Camacho‐Alpízar et al, 2021;Glądalski et al, 2021 ; Wesołowski & Wierzcholska, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%