A new study shows us why lovebirds may have gotten their name, as they can sacrifice some very important things, all in the name of love.
Researchers from the University of Oxford discovered that lovebirds are capable of giving up access to food just so they could stay near their partners. This is on top of the food access they already give up so they can forage in large flocks and stay safe from predators, though previous theories suggested that mating lovebirds who are split up would be able to get greater access to food due to their being on their own. This new study, however, discovered that mating lovebirds without feeder access would still spend time with their partner, even if they were deprived access to a feeder. Indeed, love does appear to be the driving force beyond a lovebird’s foraging patterns.
“The choice to stay close to their partner over accessing food demonstrates how an individual bird’s decisions in the short term, which might appear sub-optimal, can actually be shaped around gaining the long-term benefits of maintaining their key relationships,” said lead author Josh Firth of the University of Oxford.
The Oxford team set up bird feeders in a wooded area near the university, only releasing seed to birds who were tagged with a specific radio frequency code. Half of the feeders opened for birds with even numbered tags, while the other half opened exclusively for birds with odd numbered tags. Some of the pairs had matching tags, allowing them to eat from the same area, while others had non-matching tags, meaning the feeder doors would only open for one of the pair. As it turned out, pairs who flocked to feeders they couldn’t mutually use had spent more time in those areas.
“Some birds would get away with mainly going to their preferred feeder, and having its partner following it there,” Firth observed. “The flipside of this, of course, is that it means some birds pretty much spent all of their time at a feeder they were not allowed access to, just because its partner was going there.” He added that the birds who chose partnership over food didn’t exactly go hungry, as they worked together to take advantage of the feeders’ feature that prompted the seed release gate to remain open a few seconds at a time. This allowed the pairs to still eat some seed before the door of the feeder shut on them.
The study was published earlier this week in the journal Current Biology .