THE DETECTIVES BREAK OUT!
For those of you that haven’t read my first post, I’ve been blogging about my contraband pets. I have two male zebra finches whose names are Sherlock and Watson. They’re collectively referred to as “the detectives.” I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with the detectives since my last post, and have picked up on a few very interesting signals that apply to a few equally interesting behaviors.
For about 6 weeks I’ve been conditioning the detectives to know their cage is “home.” I made sure to avoid making eye contact, sudden movements, and loud noises around it. The detectives got all their food, water, and treats in the cage, and were therefore able to feel relatively safe within it. Thus, I hypothesized, if I were to let them out for free-flying time in the room, they would eventually both return to the comfort and safety of “home.” Early last week I tested this hypothesis, and every day since then, I now have two birds flying cheerfully through my room and pooping on all my stuff. It’s a wonderful sight, minus the pooping. More importantly, though, the free-flying time allows me to observe new and old behaviors alike up-close without making the detectives feel as constricted as they would in the cage. The signals I’ll be talking about today pertain to the male finch mating ritual.
I’ll preface the description by reiterating that Sherlock and Watson are both male zebras. They’d been humping each other relatively often before free-flying time began, but the behavior seems to have changed now that they have more room to execute their ritual. I have not yet read up on zebra finch mating displays, so what follows is purely observation, which I back up with factual sources only after having typed the observations.
I chose to talk about the detectives’ attempted mating habits mostly because of how ritualistic the behavior is- it’s different from dog behavior, where a male dog will hump anything in sight “just because.” Rather, it’s a complicated ritual that’s preceded by both vocal and visual signals, and both of the detectives seem very receptive to the process as a whole.
When still in the cage, the humping was preceded only by a very unique mating call. While most of the detectives’ calls are whistles or shallow caws, the mating call is a distinct hum. It sounds like a person forcing a tiny bit of air through tightly closed lips. Before given free-flying space, the detectives would both make this call and one would mount the other. A few days ago, I caught them doing a much more elaborate ritual during their free-flying time. They made the same mating call, but then stopped, and chattered their beaks open and shut incredibly quickly to create a series of snapping sounds. Continuing to do this, they would then wag their long tail feathers up and down so quickly that the tail produces a sound. In this part of the ritual, one male will stand upright to lift his head and lower his tail, while the other lowers his breast to his feet and raises the tail, taking a submissive position. They would then resume the vocal mating call, and the one that’s standing up will mount the one in the submissive position. They don’t seem to have clearly assigned roles, and the “submissive” bird will change each time.
After doing some research on zebra finch mating, I failed to come up with good sources describing the process. Wikipedia does nod at the hum I mentioned, stating that finches use a distinct high-pitched whine in mating calls. I did, however, find many articles on male-male pair bonding in zebra finches. One of them, from DiscoveryNews, even notes some behaviors that I observed my finches doing but didn’t recognize as couple-behaviors. I often catch the detectives preening each other and nuzzling beaks, but don’t think twice about it. According to DiscoveryNews, these are signs of affection, and could mean Sherlock and Watson have entered a “bros for life” relationship status.
I’ve learned a lot through observing my finches. I find the non-vocal signals like beak-chattering and tail- and wing- wagging especially intriguing. More on the misadventures of the detectives next time! Thanks for tuning in! Here are some pictures of the detectives in exchange!
Posted By Jonathan Flash (4)
Sources:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/zebra-finch-bro-mance-trumps-mating-110817.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_Finch#Song_and_other_vocalizations
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/08/same-sex-finch-couples-form-strong-bonds/
So far this class has been mostly focused on bioacoustic signals, and we have been giving the other types of signals less attention. It's cool that you took time out of class and observed these types of signals in "real-life" situations. There was some sections of the beginning of our Bird Song readings that mentioned zebra finches in communications research, although they also mainly focused on the song instead of the full scope of their behaviors. It's good to know that birds don't rely solely on acoustics to communicate.
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Shi
It’s remarkable how much thought and effort you put into these two birds. I like how you trained them to recognize a “home”, but you didn’t mention in your post – do they actually fly back to the cage when they had enough free flying? In response to their “humping” behavior how do you know that it is different from dog behavior? While it is true that dogs do try to hump almost anything and anyone, I find it hard to believe that birds would attempt to mate with the same sex when there are calls and signals that the birds need to recognize before attempting to mate. Perhaps the environment is a fact in their attempt to mate? (seeing how the other bird they see is each other)
ReplyDeletePosted by James Lin
Wow your birds are so beautiful and they seem very quirky, it must be fun to be able to observe them all the time. This "bros for life" relationship is really cool and is so different from the wild where they would normally be competing with each other for females. It would be interesting to see if you added a female to the mix whether this relationship would change completely. But obviously who would break up this bro-mance?
ReplyDeleteDo you know if bromances occur in the wild or if the studies done were all captive birds?
Posted by Suzanne Sullivan
It seems to me as though your finches have adopted their mating behavior in performing an ontogenic ritual of "bromance." Taking a fixed action pattern evolved for courtship, they are now using it to apply to a different affectionate situation. Could this be what happens to many birds in the wild when there is an absence of females to fight over? Or does it have more to do with the domestication of the bird? Do they lack so much of their natural instincts, with such a lack of competition for resources, that this "bro" behavior is now part of their genetic makeup?
ReplyDeletePosted by Chelsea Van Thof
Another good blog about the detectives. I hope they haven't pooper on anything too important (try explaining bird poop on a research paper to a professor). As someone else asked, do the birds return to their "home" when they go to sleep? Or do they need more training? It's pretty cool that after learning about different animal behaviors in class, you actually get to see these different behaviors in person. As for their "bromance," it seems like its one that rivals that of JD-Turk!
ReplyDeletePosted by Austin Gray
This behavior seems like it could be an example of ontogenic ritualization or a pair of very confused birds. These birds have taken a signal originally intended for mating and transformed it into something that could not result in mating. One has to wonder what then the purpose may be?
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Thomas
A couple of years ago I tried to train my birds to learn that their cage is their "home." Only one of them really ever seemed to get it but most of the time they just flew around pooping on my stuff too. I had a female and a male parakeet, and oddly enough they never did anything that I noticed that would have seemed like a mating call or mating. I often wondered why this was, but I feel as if the pet store may have neutered them some how. I never really found an answer to this, but its interesting that you have domesticated birds that still show mating signals even though both of them are male.
ReplyDeletePosted by Janelle Hayes
It's a bit surprising and comforting to find someone else who experienced a male-male mating relationship in their pets. I don't know if anyone remembers, but my last blog post was about my 2 rats, Greypatch and Gabool. I constantly observe the two of them cuddling and grooming each other. Every once in a while I'll catch them mounting each other (usually while hiding in their little house). I looked up what this could mean, and found sources saying this same-sex mounting behaviour was common in female rats in heat, but my rats are both male, so I dont know what to think. I know this sounds ridiculous but one time I'm convinced I saw Gabool giving oral sex to Greypatch. Maybe he was just trying to clean him, but that's definitely not what it looked like.
ReplyDeleteRhys Ursuliak
Thanks everyone for reading my posts. In response to all of the questions about the free-flying time, I want to simply mention that the birds are very comfortable in their cage. They don't get disturbed very much in there, and that's where they get a constant supply of food and water. Thus, when I release them, they'll usually fly around the room a bit, hang out on a shelf or ceiling fan, and then fly back into their cage after 20 or so minutes. Once they're back in, I simply close the door, and they're all set for the day. Allowing them free-flying time has made them much more tame, as it requires them to interact with me in my space. It's made them much less jittery and more comfortable with their home. I hope to soon start to hand-train them (to take treats from my hand, etc).
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is something wild birds would do; I feel like even if there's a high male:female ratio, males would simply compete more intensely for a female mate, instead of deciding to quit and pairing off with another male. That said, homosexuality is very common in the wild, so it wouldn't surprise me if that were actually the case. That said, I don't think this works as an example of ontogeny; it's not quite taking a useful behavior out-of-context for ritualization: the entire mating ritual is still used for mating, but simply with the opposite sex. I don't see that as much of a difference, so I'd argue it's not quite a case of ontogenetic ritualization.
~Posted by Jonathan Flash