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Of course, the clickbait headline is immediately followed by a partial disclaimer: Not exactly. First, the birds examined weren’t cheating. And second, they weren’t exactly extroverts either. But that wouldn’t make for a good headline, and maybe you wouldn’t even read this post then.
So, let’s explain.
Eurasian Tree Sparrows often forage in groups. Typically, some birds (“producers”) actively search for food, while others (“scroungers”) look for opportunities to take advantage of somebody else’s discoveries. So far, so good.
But here is where bird personality comes in. A study found that more exploratory female sparrows were more likely to be scroungers – they were more willing to let somebody else do the work of actually finding food.
So, to make the headline work, I just had to change “behaving opportunistically” to “cheating” and “being more exploratory” to “being an extrovert”.
Not exactly accurate science. But it made for a better headline.
Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.
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