Do birds think of themselves as one species, or several species?
Asked by
Yellowdog (
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February 16th, 2019
I have managed to attract many birds to my backyard, including at least nine red cardinals (and many brown females) mocking birds, blue jays, doves, chickadees, woodpeckers, sparrows, wrens, and several birds I cannot identify.
They all seem to treat each other like one community.
I know that my dogs recognize other dogs as their kind, and that cats, squirrels, and racoons are ‘others’. That they recognize other pets as pets, or belonging to the family and things in the yard as wild
The birds seem to communicate or understand each other pretty well across species lines. Some birds, such as mocking birds, develop bonds of trust, but other birds are very flighty around people.
But what do the birds associate as their own kind?
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12 Answers
No, because some birds are quite the enemies of other birds.
Crows and jays will eat eggs of other types of birds. Raptors will hunt small birds for food. I watched a pair of crows hector an osprey into dropping his freshly caught fish and then the crows flew off with it.
Hummingbirds are viciously protective of their food source. They will chase off other hummingbirds and others birds (like orioles) that would partake of a feeder.
Birds are very observant and can identify individuals and develop relationships. But I don’t think each species and each individual probably have their own ways of relating to each other and generalizing types and thinking about them, that would be very hard for us to understand the way they actually think about such distinctions. They probably don’t codify their taxonomies the way educated post-Aristotelian humans do, at all, though I imagine they do probably relate to most other birds as other “birds” in some sense.
You’ll have heard the proverb – birds of a feather flock together. It is true and you will rarely if ever see a starling flying with the pigeons.
There is a group of escaped house pet parrots in San Francisco. They are almost all from the same species. Parrots are highly sociable, so it would not be too far fetched to imagine that they would accept other parrot species. Here is a description of a parrot of a different species who hangs out with the other parrots, yet is regarded as an outsider.
I think they see themselves as separate species. Flocks are always one species of bird. You don’t see black birds and sparrows in the same flock, working as one. They don’t breed amongst the different species. You don’t ever see a woodpecker and a robin nesting up together. Their calls and songs are designed and utilized to communicate with birds of the same species.
They certainly will eat together, sometimes even waiting on each other.
But whether of the same species or different, they have personal space or morsels of food they will fight for, if another comes in their space. But overall they don’t seem that territorial.
I’ve also noticed that unfamiliar types of birds sometimes arrive in groups and are more aggressive and drive the usual crowd off.
An ostrich thinks it’s a giraffe due to shadow casting when grazing together.
Do birds think? They are obviously capable of recognizing one of their own species, or differentiating threatening, tasty or allied species.
I don’t think that it’s a conscious recognition but just a simple instinct, IMO.
Well it’s certainly convenient for people with a habit of eating lots of poultry to think that birds “don’t think” or aren’t conscious, but I’d say it’s pretty obvious to most people who spend time with them and pay attention to them that they do.
Some are quite intelligent, even yard birds.
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