1. Learning & Intelligence
Gruiformes
Cranes, rails and allies
11 families (3 N Amer), 7 with 1-3 species
212 species
Many are marsh-dwelling rails
Standing 5 ft tall, Sarus is tallest crane. Still common in N India where they are the symbol of a happy marriage. The fifteen species of cranes constitute one of the most endangered families of birds in the world. Cranes have also played an important role in the rise of the international conservation movement. In particular, the recovery of the Whooping Crane from near extinction has provided strong impetus to the conservation movement, and has opened the eyes of many people to the steep price that we pay for ignoring the damage we cause to the natural world. The establishment of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in 1973 and of Crane Working Groups in countries and regions around the world has stimulated unprecedented interest in cranes among specialists and the broader public in countries with diverse political and economic systems — including the USA, the former Soviet Union, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Iran, South Africa, and Australia. Thanks to the active programs of ICF, cooperative programs for the conservation of cranes have been initiated among many of these countries.
Sarus Crane

2. Cranes, family Gruidae, are one of the most endangered bird families.
Sarus Crane is tallest flying bird at 5’
15 crane species International Crane Foundation of Wisconsin 1973
The Sarus Crane is the only resident breeding crane in India and southeast Asia, and is the world’s tallest flying bird. Three subspecies are recognized, with a total estimated population of between 13,500 and 15,500. The Indian Sarus Crane (G. a. antigone) is still common in northern India, but has been extirpated from large portions of its historic range and continues to decline in areas where it still exists.

3. Gruidae, all continents except S Amer
Gruidae, all continents except S Amer. 15 species International crane foundation

7. Audio tape of Whopping Cranes calling.

8. Sandhill Crane

9. Among the heaviest flying birds, 35 lbs (16 kg)
Otididae
Bustards
Old World
Terrestrial
26 species
Among the heaviest flying birds, 35 lbs (16 kg)
Kori Bustard, African, omnivore eats mainly insects especially locusts and thus are secondarily poisoned. In Namibia the kori bustard is hunted and known as the Christmas turkey. Most bustards are in decline and several species are endangered.
Kori Bustard

10. Worldwide distribution
Rallidae
Worldwide distribution
132 species
Secretive
Marsh-dwelling
King rail largest N Amer rail. Call often likened to a rider or teamster clucking to horses. Illinois farmers nicknamed it the stage driver. King rail is east of great plains. Family includes rails, coots and gallinules.
King Rail

11. Worldwide distribution
Rallidae
Worldwide distribution
132 species
Secretive
Marsh-dwelling
King rail largest N Amer rail. Call often likened to a rider or teamster clucking to horses. Illinois farmers nicknamed it the stage driver. King rail is east of great plains. Family includes rails, coots and gallinules.

12. Virginia Rail, a California species
Other CA rails include: Black, CA Clapper,light-footed clapper and Yuma Rail, all of which are endangered.
Virginia Rail, a California species

13. Virginia Rail, a California species
Audio tape of Virginia Rail calling.
Virginia Rail, a California species

14. Eurypygidae
Sungrebe
Pantropical
1 species

15. Sungrebe

16. Aramidae, neotropics, Limpkin (1 species)
Florida
Aramidae, neotropics, Limpkin (1 species)

17. Psophiidae
Trumpeters
S America, 3 species
Pale-winged Trumpeter

18. Rhynochetidae, 1 species the Kagu, New Caladonia

19. Cariamidae Seriemas, 2 species, S America, Red-legged Seriema

20. Navigation summary
Some birds are capable of map & compass (bicoordinate) navigation
Some birds can use the sun, stars & Earth’s magnetic field as a compass
Other means of navigation?

21. What Nazi science tells us about bird navigation

22. Cardiac Conditioning

23. Cardiac Conditioning Polarized & ultraviolet light
Atmospheric pressure changes as small as 10 mm water = 10 m Δ altitude
Infrasound 0.06 Hz (man 20-20K Hz)

25. Learned or Innate? Intelligent or reflexive?
Bird behavior
Learned or Innate?
Intelligent or reflexive?

26. Learning v Intelligence
Learning is the adaptive modification of behavior as a result of experience. The degree to which a given behavior is modifiable by experience is broadly a measure of learning.
Intelligence is perception, or discernment; the quality of knowing or understanding.

27. Characteristics of Innate Behavior
Highly stereotypical, ritualized
Triggered by specific stimuli termed “releasers”
Does not appear to involve awareness or intelligence

28. Examples of Innate Behavior
Cardinal feeding goldfish
Nestlings begging
Motmot avoidance of coral snakes
Aerial predators
Oystercatcher rolling egg
Laughing gull feeding chick
Lovebird nest-building behavior

32. Turquoise-browed Motmot

33. Coral Snake
“Red around yellow, deadly fellow”

35. Response to displaced egg

36. Super sign stimulus

39. Lovebird nest-building behavior
William Dilger
Nest-building is innate (i.e., inherited)
Nevertheless, subject to modification by learning
Distinction between innate and learned behavior thus blurred

41. African Lovebirds Fischer’s Lovebird Peach-faced Lovebird
Peach-faced: Namibia, Angola, & Botswana. Fischer’s: Tanzania
Peach-faced Lovebird

42. Peach-faced Fischer’s Hybrid
Peach-faced (1 top) carries material several strips at a time in its plumage. Fischer’s carries one strip at a time in its bill. Hybrid exhibits confused behavior. Hybrid took 3 years to prefect bill carrying technique

43. Associative (trial and error)
Learning: IV types
Habituation
Associative (trial and error)
Insight
Imprinting

44. Habituation Learning not to respond to meaningless stimuli
Waning of a pre-existing response as a result of lack of reward or punishment
Chaffinch – live owl example

45. Alarm calls of Chaffinches to live owl

46. Associative learning
By chance, a given behavior leads to reward or punishment
Examples
1) Refinement of pecking accuracy
2) Learning to tell palatable from unpalatable food

48. Laughing gull

51. Seeing through a problem to its solution (Eureka!)
Insight
Seeing through a problem to its solution (Eureka!)

52. Insight Learning

54. Imprinting Extremely rapid, abrupt, irreversible form of learning
Often confined to a very brief and definite “critical period” in a bird’s life
Requires neither reward nor punishment
Konrad Lorenz: precocial chicks become attached (imprint) on the first large object they see and follow it

55. Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1973 w/ Nikko Tinbergen.

56. Imprinting Much studied in waterfowl and chickens
Common in precocial species including coots and bitterns
Some altricials – owls, ravens, doves, and some finches

57. Hess -- ducklings
Science circa 1954

58. Ducking exposed to model of male mallard with a loudspeaker which played a human imitation of the adult mallard’s “gock” cal, gock, gock, gock. Duckling released, speaker started after a short interval model moved. Imprinting period lasted 10 min.

59. Duckling placed midway between male and female models
Duckling placed midway between male and female models. After a min sound turned on, female speaker played sound of a actual female mallard calling her duckling, male made the human gock, gock sound. If the duckling moved towards the male model its responses was scored as positive.

61. Peak at about 16 hours post-hatch
Effort increases degree of imprinting

62. Forms of imprinting Critical period Filial (on mother) 1st day
Ecological 2nd day
Food 3rd day
Sexual partner days to weeks
Song weeks to a year

63. Learning & Intelligence
Next lecture

64. READINS FOR AVS 170
Pepperberg, IM Avian cognitive abilities. Bird Behavior 14:51-70.
Ricklefs, RE The cognitive face of avian life histories. Wilson Bull. 116:
Emory, NJ Cognitive ornithology: the evolution of avian intelligence: Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. 361:23-43.