The hidden message behind Japanese bird’s flapping wings

According to scientists, this Japanese tit signals its mate that he can enter the nest first by vigorously flapping its wings. Apparently this behaviour is performed by females and it’s the first time observed in a... Whether it’s a wave or a thumbs up, in the animal kingdom it’s usually only humans that perform wordless gestures to communicate. But new research from the University of Tokyo reveals that a clever species of bird - the Japanese tit (Parus minor) - does it too. Scientists have found that it flutters its wings to tell its mate to enter the nest first – a polite gesture as if to say ’after you’. The biologists describe this as a sophisticated kind form of ’symbolic gesture’ that until now only primates have been known to be capable of. The Japanese tit also produces calls in a specific order to convey complex messages to each other – staking its claim as one of nature’s smartest birds. ’For over 17 years, I have been engaged in the study of these fascinating birds,’ said study author Toshitaka Suzuki, associate professor at the University of Tokyo. ’They not only use specific calls to convey particular meanings, but also combine different calls into phrases using syntactic rules. ’These diverse vocalisations led me to initiate this research into their potential use of physical gestures. ’In our latest discovery, we revealed that the Japanese tit uses gestures to communicate with their mate.’ Japanese great tits are closely related to the great tit species that is commonly found in gardens in Britain and across Europe – Parus major. Professor Suzuki said it’s possible that this European species performs a the behaviour too, although ’more bird watching’ is required to confirm this. In spring, Japanese tits form mating pairs and build their nest inside a tree cavity with a small entrance. Professor Suzuki and his co-researcher Norimasa Sugita filmed the behaviour of 16 birds (eight couples in all) with young living in nest boxes in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture, Japan. When carrying little morsels to feed their nestlings, the birds enter the nest one at a time. But the researchers noticed that when arriving back to the nest, the birds would first find a perch nearby first and then one would flutter their wings toward the other. By analysing 321 of these nest visitations, they saw the wing-fluttering display prompted the mate who was being fluttered at to enter the nest box first, while the one who fluttered entered second. According to the team, the birds deliberately directed the fluttering toward their mate – not toward the nest entrance as if to indicate its whereabouts. Interestingly, the gesture was performed more often by the female birds, after which the male usually entered the nest box, regardless of which had arrived first. If the female didn’t flutter her wings, then she usually entered the nest box before the male – suggesting the female dominates how the whole process unfolds. ’In nest visitations where both parents approached the nest simultaneously, females performed wing-fluttering in 42 per cent of cases, whereas males did so only in 6 per cent,’ Professor Suzuki told MailOnline. ’We need further studies to examine why females perform wing-fluttering more often than males.’ Researchers call this clever wing flutter a ’symbolic gesture’ (one that conveys messages) rather than a ’deictic gesture’ (one that simply points out objects or other living things). Their discovery challenges the previous belief that symbolic gestures – which require complex cognitive skills – are prominent only in humans and great apes. Professor Suzuki’s research has already shown that this clever bird speaks in phrases to help find food or warn others in times of danger. By combining calls together, they produce messages that convey different meanings, such as ’come here’ or ’scan for danger’. The new study has been published in Current Biology.