Post by OldGreenVulture on Dec 3, 2019 10:48:33 GMT
Azure-winged Magpie - Cyanopica cyanus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Cyanopica
Species: Cyanopica cyanus
The azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the genus Cyanopica.
It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in colour with the wings and the feathers of the long (16–20 cm) tail an azure blue. It inhabits various types of coniferous (mainly pine) and broadleaf forest, including parks and gardens in the eastern populations.
Distribution and habitat
It occurs over a large region of eastern Asia in most of China, Korea, Japan, and north into Mongolia and southern Siberia. It was formerly thought to be conspecific with the Iberian magpie, but recent genetic analysis has shown them to be distinct at species level.
Behaviour and ecology
Often azure-winged magpies find food as a family group or several groups making flocks of up to 70 birds. The largest groups congregate after the breeding season and throughout the winter months. Their diet consists mainly of acorns (oak seeds) and pine nuts, extensively supplemented by invertebrates and their larvae, soft fruits and berries, and also human-provided scraps in parks and towns.
This species usually nests in loose, open colonies with a single nest in each tree. There are usually 6–8 eggs that are incubated for 15 days.
The voice is a quick fired and metallic sounding kwink-kwink-kwink usually preceded by a single krarrah.
Azure-winged magpies show human-like generosity
Prosocial behavior due to cooperative breeding
Date: October 18, 2016
Source:University of Vienna
Summary:
Azure-winged magpies, an Asian bird species, take any opportunity to provide food to their group members, even without receiving any reward themselves. A team of cognitive biologists showed this type of prosocial behavior experimentally in a bird species for the first time. There are very few other animals that show such human-like generosity.
Azure-winged magpie, Cyanopica cyana (stock image).
Credit: © Erni / Fotolia
Magpies do not always have the best reputation, as they are generally known for their tendency to steal shiny things. Also other bird species tested for prosociality so far turned out to be either indifferent to benefitting others or only provided food when the other repeatedly begged for it.
Azure-winged magpies seem to be the exception to the rule. They provided food to their group members spontaneously and without the other birds begging them. "This so-called 'proactive prosociality' has long been believed to be a human hallmark," explains lead author Lisa Horn. It was however suggested that cooperative child rearing promoted this tendency to benefit others without expecting anything in return in early humans. In line with the hypothesis, researchers also found evidence for prosocial behavior in cooperatively breeding primates. "But so far results from other animal taxa were missing," says Horn.
Therefore, Horn and colleagues tested prosociality in a cooperatively breeding bird species -- the azure-winged magpie -- using an ingenious experimental design. By landing on a perch, the birds operated a seesaw mechanism, which brought food into reach of their group members. If the birds wanted to grab the food themselves, they would have had to leave the perch and the seesaw would tilt back, thereby moving the food out of reach again. Even though the birds thus could not get anything for themselves the magpies continued to deliver food to their conspecifics across all sessions and at similarly high rates as humans and cooperatively breeding primates. Also, the birds only operated the apparatus when their group members could actually obtain the food, and not in a control condition where access to the food was blocked.
"Our results seem to support the hypothesis that raising offspring cooperatively may have promoted the emergence of prosocial tendencies not only in humans, but also in other animals. Further tests of non-cooperatively breeding birds are, however, needed," concludes Horn.
Story Source: University of Vienna. "Azure-winged magpies show human-like generosity: Prosocial behavior due to cooperative breeding." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161018193150.htm (accessed October 20, 2016).
Journal Reference:
Lisa Horn, Clara Scheer, Thomas Bugnyar, Jorg J. M. Massen. Proactive prosociality in a cooperatively breeding corvid, the azure-winged magpie ( Cyanopica cyana). Biology Letters, 2016; 12 (10): 20160649 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0649
Abstract
One of the contemporary hypotheses concerning the evolution of human altruism is the cooperative breeding hypothesis (CBH) which has recently been tested in non-human primates. Using a similar paradigm, we investigated prosociality in a cooperatively breeding corvid, the azure-winged magpie. We found that the magpies delivered food to their group members at high rates, and unlike other corvids, they did so without any cues provided by others. In two control conditions, the magpies stopped participating over time, indicating that they learned to discriminate prosocial tests from controls. Azure-winged magpies are thus the first birds that experimentally show proactive prosociality. Our findings are in line with the CBH; however, additional corvid species need to be tested in this promising paradigm.
From Carnivora
carnivora.net/-t2465.html?
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Cyanopica
Species: Cyanopica cyanus
The azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the genus Cyanopica.
It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in colour with the wings and the feathers of the long (16–20 cm) tail an azure blue. It inhabits various types of coniferous (mainly pine) and broadleaf forest, including parks and gardens in the eastern populations.
Distribution and habitat
It occurs over a large region of eastern Asia in most of China, Korea, Japan, and north into Mongolia and southern Siberia. It was formerly thought to be conspecific with the Iberian magpie, but recent genetic analysis has shown them to be distinct at species level.
Behaviour and ecology
Often azure-winged magpies find food as a family group or several groups making flocks of up to 70 birds. The largest groups congregate after the breeding season and throughout the winter months. Their diet consists mainly of acorns (oak seeds) and pine nuts, extensively supplemented by invertebrates and their larvae, soft fruits and berries, and also human-provided scraps in parks and towns.
This species usually nests in loose, open colonies with a single nest in each tree. There are usually 6–8 eggs that are incubated for 15 days.
The voice is a quick fired and metallic sounding kwink-kwink-kwink usually preceded by a single krarrah.
Azure-winged magpies show human-like generosity
Prosocial behavior due to cooperative breeding
Date: October 18, 2016
Source:University of Vienna
Summary:
Azure-winged magpies, an Asian bird species, take any opportunity to provide food to their group members, even without receiving any reward themselves. A team of cognitive biologists showed this type of prosocial behavior experimentally in a bird species for the first time. There are very few other animals that show such human-like generosity.
Azure-winged magpie, Cyanopica cyana (stock image).
Credit: © Erni / Fotolia
Magpies do not always have the best reputation, as they are generally known for their tendency to steal shiny things. Also other bird species tested for prosociality so far turned out to be either indifferent to benefitting others or only provided food when the other repeatedly begged for it.
Azure-winged magpies seem to be the exception to the rule. They provided food to their group members spontaneously and without the other birds begging them. "This so-called 'proactive prosociality' has long been believed to be a human hallmark," explains lead author Lisa Horn. It was however suggested that cooperative child rearing promoted this tendency to benefit others without expecting anything in return in early humans. In line with the hypothesis, researchers also found evidence for prosocial behavior in cooperatively breeding primates. "But so far results from other animal taxa were missing," says Horn.
Therefore, Horn and colleagues tested prosociality in a cooperatively breeding bird species -- the azure-winged magpie -- using an ingenious experimental design. By landing on a perch, the birds operated a seesaw mechanism, which brought food into reach of their group members. If the birds wanted to grab the food themselves, they would have had to leave the perch and the seesaw would tilt back, thereby moving the food out of reach again. Even though the birds thus could not get anything for themselves the magpies continued to deliver food to their conspecifics across all sessions and at similarly high rates as humans and cooperatively breeding primates. Also, the birds only operated the apparatus when their group members could actually obtain the food, and not in a control condition where access to the food was blocked.
"Our results seem to support the hypothesis that raising offspring cooperatively may have promoted the emergence of prosocial tendencies not only in humans, but also in other animals. Further tests of non-cooperatively breeding birds are, however, needed," concludes Horn.
Story Source: University of Vienna. "Azure-winged magpies show human-like generosity: Prosocial behavior due to cooperative breeding." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161018193150.htm (accessed October 20, 2016).
Journal Reference:
Lisa Horn, Clara Scheer, Thomas Bugnyar, Jorg J. M. Massen. Proactive prosociality in a cooperatively breeding corvid, the azure-winged magpie ( Cyanopica cyana). Biology Letters, 2016; 12 (10): 20160649 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0649
Abstract
One of the contemporary hypotheses concerning the evolution of human altruism is the cooperative breeding hypothesis (CBH) which has recently been tested in non-human primates. Using a similar paradigm, we investigated prosociality in a cooperatively breeding corvid, the azure-winged magpie. We found that the magpies delivered food to their group members at high rates, and unlike other corvids, they did so without any cues provided by others. In two control conditions, the magpies stopped participating over time, indicating that they learned to discriminate prosocial tests from controls. Azure-winged magpies are thus the first birds that experimentally show proactive prosociality. Our findings are in line with the CBH; however, additional corvid species need to be tested in this promising paradigm.
From Carnivora
carnivora.net/-t2465.html?