Spatial accuracy in food-storing and nonstoring birds

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 58; no. 4; pp. 727 - 734
• Main Authors: McGREGOR, A., HEALY, S.D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01-10-1999; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal cognition; Animal ethology; Animal memory; Aves; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Food; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Parus ater; Parus caeruleus; Parus major; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Vertebrata; Laboratory study; Feeding behavior; Interspecific comparison; Cognition; Feeding; Parus ater; Vertebrata; Hoarding; Parus caeruleus; Matching task; Aves; Parus major; Food; Spatial memory
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1999.1190

We compared the ability of coal tits, Parus ater (a food-storing species), great tits, P. major, and blue tits, P. caeruleus (two nonstoring species) to remember spatial locations in a spatial delayed-matching-to-sample task. Presentation of a single sample image on a touch screen was followed by a choice phase containing two, three or four images, in which the bird had to choose the original image. Storers made more correct choices than did nonstorers. Performance was affected by the proximity of the distractors: both groups performed less well when distractors were close to the sample although storers were less affected by proximity of distractors than were nonstorers. Both groups made correct decisions sooner than errors. We conclude that the accuracy of spatial memory in food-storing birds is greater than that of nonstorers.