The Lincolnshire Bird Club

I have recently been re-reading "The Life of Bees" by the Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck, (1862-1949) and also looking again at some details of the work of the Austrian ethologist, Karl von Frisch (1886-1949). The latter's research on the mystery of the honey bee's 'waggle dance' at the entrance to the hive led him to discover that the bee was physically communicating to other members of the hive regarding the location of an abundant nectar source.......and it all set my mind on thinking about the nature and manner of the appearance of Goldfinches in my garden at the (new) nyjer seed feeders.

I have had no nyjer seed feeders in my garden over the winter as I had done a lot of re-seeding of my lawn last autumn and I didn't want any nyjer seed Goldfinches discovering my grass seed. Eventually, I put out the nyjer seed feeders once the grass seed had become well established as sprouting grass, and that happened in late February. Meanwhile, I had seen no Goldfinches at all in or over the garden during the winter months.

As I have noticed over the years, a flock of Goldfinches didn't now just appear overnight in the garden after the seed had been put out, but it all proceeded thus : within a couple of days or so one single Goldfinch appeared on the nyjer seeds ; followed within a day by another 1..... then by 2.....by 4....by 6 and so on : a usual pattern. It wasn't just 1 bird soon followed by a flock but a steady build-up.

So, was it just a case of the odd foraging bird flying over, seeing the feeders and flying down to join Goldfinch No. 1, or just a case of Goldfinch No.2/No.3,etc aimlessly following No. 1 and happening to find the feeders ? I suppose larger numbers appearing at the feeders could also be the result of a form of avian telepathy we just don't understand. Or could Goldfinches, like the honey bees, perhaps communicate by more physical means, which other Goldfinches understand, that there is a good food source available nearby? Does a successful forager (Goldfinch No. 1) after discovering and feeding on the nyjer seeds then locate, by accident or design, other odd foraging Goldfinches in the area and, by specific head and wing movements, perform the equivalent of the honey bee's "waggle dance" to indicate a nearby food source.....and they then 'follow the leader' to that food source. Goldfinches No.2 and 3 could do the same and so the feeding group builds up.

Goldfinches and other sociable birds could be instinctively wired up to understand that by its specific body language another Goldfinch is indicating a food source and accompany it to where that food source is. Could that behaviour perhaps be just one of the strategies that sociable birds have evolved to see them safely through the winter period of limited food sources?

In the harsh Natural World, food serendipity or the fortunate finding of food by chance is not really an acceptable constant norm for the survival of sociable species. We have all seen single birds in the winter foraging well away from their main flock members. Do the successful ones then report back to other members of the flock?

Do sociable birds in general sometimes (not always but sometimes) rely on lone foragers reporting by appropriate body language the good news that there is a good food source in the area? Does an older bird of a group sometimes instinctively assume this role of reporting forager? So,if sociable bees can communicate food source information by body language to other bees, why shouldn't sociable birds have evolved strategies to do the same to other birds?

Finally, perhaps "ornithologists" will dismiss my post as the misguided ramblings of a typical amateur birder......but then, I suppose I (a typical amateur birder) would be in good company : the same ridicule was directed at Karl von Frisch (a professional scientist, admittedly) when he suggested "waggle dancing" as a form of nectar source communication amongst bees.

Freddy
PS. Any comments on the above would be welcome.

50 views so far but no comments as yet......

One point I should have emphasised in my post but failed to do so :

When Goldfinches 2 and 3, etc., first appeared in the garden recently, they didn't seem to be foragers just dropping out of the sky. It looked as if they were flying in with No.1, perching initially in a nearby tree, then all flying down to the nyjer seeds. On that basis, it would appear that Nos.2 and 3, etc., had met up with No.1 away from my garden.

I use the expression 'No.1, for it is very unlikely after having initially discovered the nyjer seeds, that particular Goldfinch would fail to return regularly to my garden.

Another interesting point is that when one first puts out the nyjer seeds, they can remain there unvisited for a number of days - even up to a week- but once Goldfinch No.1 appears, Nos. 2 and 3 etc., appear within a day or so.

Freddy

I am afraid I can't confirm or deny Freddy's hypothesis but feel this may be a useful contribution. Goldfinches have only come to garden feeders in great numbers comparatively recently. I have trawled through my ringing records from 2004-2011 and found that I processed 1212 Goldfinches at garden feeder sites of which 102 were re-traps and 6 were controls (birds ringed elsewhere). This equates to just under 9% of the birds had previously visited the site. This would seem to be at odds with Freddy's conjecture that "No. 1 would fail to return regularly to my garden."

I believe there is a constant stream of different individuals visiting garden feeders. Controls have shown that, nationally, there is a distinct movement of Goldfinches along the east coast - I have recently been informed that one I controlled at Osgodby in November 2011 had been ringed in Montrose (between Edinburgh and Aberdeen) 43 days earlier.

This does not answer Freddy's original question but tends to show the Goldfinches on your nyjer feeders may well be different individuals the following day and could well have come much further than you think.

Stuart,

I wrote at the end of my post that any comments would be welcome......and your post is certainly a welcome addition, highlighting as it does an experienced ringer's interesting observations.

As ever, one post can lead to a further point :

A slight misunderstanding re your sentence after saying that under 9% are recorded as returning to the same garden : "this would seem to be at odds with Freddy's conjecture that 'No. 1 would fail to return regularly to my garden'. "What I actually wrote was , ".....it is very UNLIKELY..... No.1 Goldfinch would fail to return regularly to my garden".......but it was probably a typo on your part and you meant to include 'it is very unlikely'.

Of course, No.1 and the earliest Goldfinches to appear at the feeders, may for whatever reason, only frequent the garden for a week or so before moving on. Would your relevant ringing sessions at the same site have been at less frequent intervals ?

On the other hand, your point on the surprisingly rapid turnover of birds at feeders is a most valid and forceful one.

Thanks very much for showing an interest in my verbal doodles.

Freddy

Sorry I can't add anything without doing a lot of reading Freddy, but this would be a very good question to ask Ian Newton at the AGM in a couple of weeks time.

Thanks Freddy and I hope you take up Phil's suggestion. You are right in assuming my ringing sessions are far less frequent (every three or four weeks) and they would not reflect the turn over of birds as well as constant observation at a feeder.

Thanks Stuart and Phil for your comments and suggestions.

I also have some additional comments re "the birds and the bees": the results of a recent study now published in "Science", suggest for the first time that different worker honeybees exhibit different consistent behavioural differences. Previously, worker honeybees were considered exact replicas of one another. In fact, researchers found thousands of distinct differences in gene activity in the brains of very active foraging, moderately active or non-foraging worker bees. They concluded that individual worker honeybees actually differ in their desire or willingness to perform different tasks, including foraging : and that these differences may be due in part to variability in the bees' 'personalities'.

Transferring the above information to our Goldfinches might be interesting. If bees could have different 'personalities', then might Goldfinches also have different personality traits ?.....and accordingly choose certain tasks that suit them, with the more adventurous Goldfinches adopting the role of forager. Differences in 'foraging willingness' in humans would be viewed as a component of personality, so do Goldfinches (and other birds, of course) have distinct 'personalities', exhibiting specific differences which have parallels in humans ? Perhaps they are not, as regularly considered (M/F sexing apart), exact repetitive replicas of one another or just a regimented species of seemingly interchangeable individuals.

Freddy