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#bird behavior

3 public questions tagged with this topic.

Basic Evolution

Homing pigeons use which cues for navigation?

Geological time scale divides Earth's 4.5 billion year history into eons, eras, periods and epochs based on stratigraphy and fossil succession. Precambrian accounts for 87% encompassing Hadean, Archean and Proterozoic eons before Phanerozoic with Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Major events include first life 3.5 billion years ago, Cambrian explosion, breakup of Pangaea in Jurassic and diversification of mammals and flowering plants. Therefore Magnetic field and sun reflects major division or event in deep time framework. This concept integrates genetics, ecology and molecular evidence, frequently tested in NEET, GATE and CSIR-NET, highlighting links between genotype,

Ref: Alcock, Animal Behavior, Inclusive Fitness and Haplodiploidy.

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SPECIES INTERACTION

Which type of commensalism describes birds nesting in trees?

Inquilinism is a form of commensalism in which one species uses another organism, its body, or its constructed space as shelter or a place to live without significantly harming it. A bird nesting in a tree gains support and a protected site for eggs and young, while the tree is ordinarily treated as unaffected. Phoresy would require the tree to transport the bird, and metabiosis usually involves using a structure or environmental modification after its producer has finished with it, such as a hermit crab occupying an abandoned snail shell. Parasitism would require a net cost to the tree caused by exploitation. The classification is an idealization: a heavy nest may break a branch, birds may fertilize soil with droppings, or they may remove herbivores, creating negative or positive effects. For a typical nest, however, these effects are negligible relative to the bird’s clear benefit. The key mechanism is use of living space rather than extraction of nutrients or reciprocal exchange of services.

Ref: Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems, Begon et al., 5th Ed., Ch. 8-13

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SPECIES INTERACTION

Cattle stirring insects for cattle egrets is:

Cattle egrets often forage near grazing cattle because the mammals’ movement through grass flushes insects and other small animals into view. The bird gains a higher capture rate or reduced search effort, while the cattle are generally assumed to experience neither benefit nor harm. This asymmetrical (+, 0) effect is commensalism. The egret is not consuming tissue from the cattle, so the relationship is not parasitism; its predation is directed at the disturbed insects. Mutualism would require evidence that cattle benefit, perhaps through removal of ectoparasites, but the classic example specifies prey flushed from vegetation rather than parasites taken from the body. “Predation” correctly describes the egret–insect interaction, not the cattle–egret association being classified. The neutrality assumption should be tested rather than presumed because birds could occasionally remove pests or distract livestock. Ecological labels depend on the focal pair and net fitness consequences: one event can simultaneously contain commensalism between cattle and egret and predation between egret and insect.

Ref: Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems, Begon et al., 5th Ed., Ch. 8-13

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