Birds make an 'after you' gesture to prompt their mate to enter nest

Signals such as waving are a common aspect of communication among people and other great apes. In a bid to learn more about such behaviours in birds,at the University of Tokyo and his colleagues have installed hundreds of nest boxes in a forest populated with Japanese tits (To mimic the tree cavities that the tits usually dwell in, each box had a 7.5-centimetre-wide hole, just big enough for one bird to squeeze into at a time.

During breeding season, the team observed 321 nest visits across eight breeding pairs, with the tits often having food in tow to feed their hatchlings. If a couple arrived at the nest together, each tit would perch on a nearby branch before entering. Around 40 per cent of the time, the female fluttered its wings for a few seconds, with its chest facing the male. This was quickly followed by the male entering the nest first, then the female.However, when neither bird fluttered its wings, which made up 44 per cent of nest visitations, the females usually entered first.

The findings suggest that Japanese tits, and possibly other bird species, communicate in a much more intricate way than was previously thought. “There is a hypothesis that language evolved from gestural communication,” says Suzuki. “So, these studies can help us understand the evolution of complex communication, including our own language.”

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