Innovative Birds Face a Lower Risk of Extinction

Species that come up with new ways to find food may be more likely to survive in habitats disturbed by agriculture and other human activities.

Written byMichael Graw

| 4 min read

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ABOVE: A Carib grackle (Quiscalus lugubris) dunks dry pet food in a puddle to soften it.
© LOUIS LEFEBVRE

Given the opportunity, some birds can be surprisingly inventive when gathering food. Ornithologists have spotted green herons (Butorides virescens) using bread to lure fish, ravens (Corvus corax) dropping nuts on roads for passing cars to crack, and Barbados bullfinches (Loxigilla barbadensis) taking and pecking open sugar packets from restaurants. One group of birdwatchers even caught rufous treepies (Dendrocitta vagabunda) stealing burning candles from a Hindu temple, only to extinguish the flames and consume the cotton-and-butter wick.

Many ecologists suspect that these unusual behaviors are more than just curiosities—they could be part of a pattern that explains why some species survive while others go extinct. An idea known as the cognitive buffer hypothesis, introduced in the early 1990s, posits that animals capable of coming up with new behaviors are better able to respond ...

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