Birds of a feather do flock together
THE flamingo may appear to be a bird of graceful insouciance but when it comes to choosing flock-mates it is surprisingly choosy.
Bird experts have found that the waders form cliques with like-minded animals within their group. That means that any flamboyance of flamingos will also include its share of submissive individuals who will huddle together away from their more uproarious associates.
Dr Paul Rose, from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Exeter University’s centre for research in animal behaviour, said: “Individual flamingos have particular ‘friends’ within the flock.”
He added: “We wanted to find out whether individual character traits explain why these friendships form. The answer is yes – birds of a feather do flock together.
“Bolder birds had stronger, more consistent ties with other bold birds, while submissive birds tended to spend their time with fellow submissive flamingos,” he added.
Scientists made the discovery while analysing the social behaviour of captive Caribbean and Chilean flamingos based at WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire.
Birds of both species tended to spend time with others whose personality was similar to their own.
The “personality” of flamingos was assessed by measuring consistent individual differences, such as aggressiveness and willingness to explore.
Fionnuala Mccully, now at the University of Liverpool, who collected data for the study during an MSC animal behaviour course at the University of Exeter, said: “Like humans, flamingos appear to carve out different roles in society based on their personality.”
“We observed groups of aggressive birds which attempt to dominate rivals and tend to get in more fights. Submissive birds may be more complex than simply being lower down the pecking order – they may be using a different approach to get what they need.
“The various different personality groups provide social help to their members, for example by supporting each other in squabbles.”
In the Caribbean flamingos, birds of a certain personality type had a particular role within the group overall but this was not found in the Chilean flock.