Who’s a pretty boy, then? Parrots ‘blush’ during social chatter
BLUSHING was once considered a peculiar characteristic of the human race. But scientists have discovered that man shares this involuntary reaction with parrots, whose cheeks also redden in social situations.
Five hand-reared blueand-yellow macaws were studied by researchers keen to understand the birds’ complex social lives.
When their human handlers actively interacted with them, by chatting and maintaining eye contact, they ruffled their head feathers and blushed on their bare cheeks.
Aline Bertin, of the INRA Centre Val de Loire in France, said: “How birds use facial displays and whether they communicate their inner subjective feelings is a question that is crucial to deepening our understanding of bird sentience.
“Although caution must be exercised when interpreting these data due to the small sample size, we argue that crown ruffling and skin colour variation may provide facial indicators of birds’ inner subjective feelings.”
Ms Bertin’s team placed each bird on a familiar perch in an empty aviary.
They first interacted with them for two minutes by looking at and talking to them.
They then monitored the bird when the handler remained at the same distance but turned their back.
The parrots blushed around the eye “significantly more frequently” during mutual interaction.
In humans, blushing occurs in emotionally charged situations in the context of social attention.
Blood vessels and capillaries near the skin’s surface enlarge and the increased blood flow causes the face to appear red.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.