Here’s more from the Daily Star:
The results show that “without witnessing the struggle and manner of death”, the researchers write, the jays see the presence of a dead bird as information to be publicly shared, just as they do the presence of a predator.
Spreading the message that a dead bird is in the area helps safeguard other birds, alerting them to danger, and lowering their risk from whatever killed the original bird in the first place, the researchers say.
I’m looking forward to what other unique behavior they discover in birds.
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I witnessed something similar. I saw a herring seagull swoop down and snatch a baby mallard duck out of a lake and swallow it whole. The mother of the duckling cried out and chased the seagull in a terrible rage. It was heartbreaking to watch.
We have a lot of birds in our backyard to observe and we noticed something interesting this summer. One bright red male Cardinal would get sunflower seeds from a feeder in the back of the garden and carry them back to the female in the tree behind him. He would put the seeds in her mouth. We noticed him doing this for about two weeks. She sat on a low branch where we could see her and we watched through binoculars. So sweet.