Starlings know if you are watching them

Starlings will keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. However, if the person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall, according to experiments by Julia Carter and colleagues at the University of Bristol, reported today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences.

"Previous studies have shown that starlings willlearn within a matter of hours to ignore even relatively elaborate birdscarers - these devices never do what a real predator would, they don'tactually chase the birds or present any other signs of danger, so thebirds quickly learn to ignore them."

This fear ofbeing observed directly may be hard wired into bird brains, sincepredators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so directeye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Equally, it might be a sign thatstarlings are doing something smarter than that, by taking into accountthe view of another, not just another bird but another species.