Babbage | Bird behaviour

Had a very shiny? No

That magpies are attracted to shiny objects may be a myth

By D.J.P.

A CENTRAL character in Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra is the titular magpie. The opera's rising action begins with the bird's theft of a silver spoon, and later, a silver coin. European folklore abounds with examples of the magpie's love of both shiny objects and larceny.

But the folklore may be merely that; there are very few documented cases of the theft of bling by magpies. Many people may claim to have seen the birds take a shine, as it were, to glittering objects, but that may simply be a case of what is known as observation bias: expected behaviour is noted simply because it is expected, while no notice is taken of a magpie interacting with a less eye-catching object.

The rigours of science have now weighed in on the matter, in a paper published this week in Animal Cognition. Toni Shephard at the University of Exeter's Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour and colleagues put the folklore to a test, using both captive birds obtained from wildlife rescue centres and wild birds around the university campus.

The team used a collection of test objects that included screws, aluminium foil rings, and small swatches of foil. Half of the objects were left in their natural, shiny state, and the other half painted a matte blue colour. These were placed in piles a short distance away from rations of peanuts. The food was merely a way to draw the birds in closer to the objects. If indeed they were unconditionally attracted to all that glitters, the team expected the birds to interact with—or perhaps even to steal from—the shiny set.

Not so. In captive experiments, not a single bird bothered to touch any of the objects, shiny or otherwise. In the field, the birds only picked up an unpainted foil ring twice in 64 tests, each time discarding it immediately (the researchers concluded that perhaps the birds were examining the rings as potential food). In the parlance of psychology, the birds exhibited neophobia, a fear of what is unfamiliar—shiny or not.

Down goes another bit of wisdom about animals, then, that the authors chalk up to folklore writ into popular consciousness. Perhaps a modern rewrite of La Gazza Ladra is needed, too.

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