Study shows that city birds are smarter than rural birds as modern cityscapes made it a better problem solver. It also shows that city birds have stronger immune system compared to their rural counterparts.
A group of scientists from McGill University in Montreal studied the Barbados bullfinches, a small bird that is common in the island and primarily feeds on seeds. They took 53 birds from urban and rural areas of the island and conducted the test. The birds were released afterward, as reported by News Week.
"We found that not only were birds from urbanized areas better at innovative problem-solving tasks than bullfinches from rural environments but that surprisingly urban birds also had a better immunity than rural birds," says Jean-Nicolas Audet, a doctoral student and first author of the study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, in a statement.
Since urban birds' problem solving is better than the birds from rural area, the scientist expected that these birds' immune system is lower as both traits require a fair amount of energy and time to develop, Audet explained. "It seems that in this case, the urban birds have it all," she added.
Being hounded by city birds at a restaurant inspired the study. "Barbados bullfinch is always watching and trying to steal your sandwich," Audet said.
According to the test, the city birds are quicker on eating human foods that were then hidden, that means they do not care about humans interrupting their meal. They can also get the foods that are being placed in drawers or jars, Washington Post reported.
They are good at learning to distinguish different colored dishes where they can get food and they are more cautious in getting food near unfamiliar objects compared to the birds from rural areas. However, the study also shows that humans gave these birds a reason to learn new skills in getting their food compared to rural birds which are more likely to find seeds in some places.
