Food Finding in Black-Capped Chickadees: Altruistic Communication?

Intraspecific flocking may increase an individual's fitness by facilitating food finding and decreasing predation. An interesting problem is whether a social bird finding a rich food source behaves selfishly or altruistically. An altruist decreases its own fitness by aiding another. A non-altru...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Wilson bulletin (Wilson Ornithological Society) 1981-01, Vol.93 (3), p.393-394
Main Author: Ficken, Millicent S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Animal vocalization
Bird banding
Bird calls
Flocks
Food
General Notes
Reciprocal altruism
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Summary:Intraspecific flocking may increase an individual's fitness by facilitating food finding and decreasing predation. An interesting problem is whether a social bird finding a rich food source behaves selfishly or altruistically. An altruist decreases its own fitness by aiding another. A non-altruist would presumably eat without announcing the presence of food to the flock. Here the author reports behavior of Black-capped Chickadees (Parus atricapillus ) on finding an especially rich food source. In most cases, the chickadees vocalized and attracted conspecifics to the food source.
ISSN:0043-5643