blah
Parrots are highly social beings, so it may come as a surprise to learn that it takes them a little time to actually befriend each other. A team of researchers studied and documented the process that parrots who are strangers to each other will follow to make new friends.
“It can be really difficult to study how animals form new relationships and we don’t know how this process works for a lot of social animals,” said the study’s lead author, behavioral ecologist Claire O’Connell, who was a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati during this study. But, as in humans, social relationships are beneficial for parrots.
“Generally, maintaining these strong social bonds is associated with decreased stress and higher reproductive success,” Dr O’Connell told me in email.
Social relationships are also invaluable for conducting scientific studies.
“This research would not have been possible without the help and hard work of my collaborators Dr. Gerry Carter, Dr. Annemarie van der Marel, and my PhD advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Hobson,” Dr O’Connell told me in email.
The study birds were monk parakeets, Myiopsitta monachus, also known as Quaker parrots. This species is a medium-sized bright-green parrot with a greyish breast, forehead and underparts, and an orange beak and grey feet. Domesticated monk parakeets sometimes have white, blue, or yellow coloring replacing their typical “wild type” green plumage. Such unusual coloring makes them more vulnerable to predators. These parrots originated in subtropical habitats of South America, where they are common and widespread. They are known to be agricultural pests, and are recognized as invasive species in many parts of the world, mainly in large cities throughout North and South America, in Europe and in Southeast Asia, and even in Northern Africa.
Monk parakeets are one of the few parrot species that construct their own nests – which can grow into large colonial structures, comprising separate “apartments” with their own entrances, that can rival the size of an automobile. These nests can break entire trees under their weight or become fire hazards when constructed on power poles.
“Monk parakeets are very social,” Dr O’Connell told me in email. “They often form affiliative, or friendly, relationships with one or two other birds but they also fight a lot – don’t worry though, the aggression is usually mild! The birds need to make decisions about who they are going to form relationships with and when and that process could have important consequences for their survival and reproduction.”
To understand how these parrots form relationships, Dr O’Connell and collaborators started by placing groups of wild-caught feral parakeets into a large flight. Some of these birds were strangers to each other.
Dr O’Connell and collaborators then watched them and documented when and how new relationships formed by studying how close the birds approached each other over time and which birds groomed each other or engaged in other friendly behaviors.
“Capturing the first moments between strangers can be challenging, so we were really excited that our experiments gave us the chance to observe that process up close,” Dr O’Connell said.
Then Dr O’Connell and collaborators analyzed more than 179 relationships using computational methods and statistical models to determine whether relationship formation followed the pattern predicted by previous studies exploring their idea that the birds were “testing the waters”.
Dr O’Connell and collaborators found that parrots who started out as strangers were more likely to approach each other with caution compared to birds they knew. Dr O’Connell told me that birds who don’t welcome a newcomer’s attention can react aggressively, which can lead to injuries.
“We often observe what we call ‘quarreling,’ which may occur if a bird’s attempt to groom another bird’s feathers is not well received,” Dr O’Connell said. “Quarreling is a mild type of aggression, and it may deter the bird from trying to groom them.”
To avoid injuries from misunderstandings, these “stranger birds” took time to share space before eventually perching shoulder to shoulder, touching beaks or preening others. Some strangers escalated their relationships further to sharing food or mating.
“There can be a lot of benefits to being social, but these friendships have to start somewhere,” Dr O’Connell pointed out.
“Many parrots, for example, form strong bonds with one or two other birds,” Dr O’Connell said. “Partners often spend most of their time together, preen each other or sometimes form reproductive relationships.”
Are there other species that also “test the waters” like these study parrots did?
A 2020 study by co-author, behavioral ecologist Gerald Carter, who is a professor who studies social networks in bats at Princeton University, reported that newcomer vampire bats likewise test the waters, gradually escalating their interactions from social grooming to food-sharing relationships with trustworthy partners (ref).
“This process isn’t well documented outside of vampire bats and monk parakeets,” Dr O’Connell observed. “We don’t know how common this process may be when developing new relationships in other social species.”
And yet, such tentative introductions might seem familiar to many people, too.
“What’s really fascinating about testing the waters is how intuitive it feels,” Dr O’Connell noted, adding that she could relate to her study parrots.
“I started observing the parakeets shortly before I moved to Cincinnati to start graduate school,” Dr O’Connell said. “I was excited but also a little nervous about making new friends. At the same time, I was literally watching the parakeets make new friends themselves, although some did better than others. I started realizing there may be something I could learn from the parakeets.”
Source:
Claire L. O’Connell, Gerald G. Carter, Annemarie van der Marel and Elizabeth A. Hobson (2025). Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships, Biology Letters 21(11)| doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399
© Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes | LinkTr.ee
Socials: Bluesky | CounterSocial | LinkedIn | Mastodon Science | Spoutible | SubStack | Threads | Twitter
