The bird invites its mate into the nest with a gracious gesture

Great tits appear to flap their wings to signal their mates to enter the nest, suggesting that birds may use a variety of gestures to communicate.

Signals such as hand waving are common aspects of communication between humans and other great apes. To learn more about such behavior of birds, Toshitaka Suzuki Professors at the University of Tokyo installed hundreds of nest boxes in forests where great tits live (minor pulse) For the past few years, near the town of Karuizawa.

To mimic the tree cavities that great tits normally inhabit, each box had a 7.5-centimeter-wide hole, just large enough to fit one bird at a time.

During the breeding season, the researchers observed 321 nest visits by eight pairs, with great tits often carrying food to feed the hatchlings.

When the couple arrives at the nest together, each tit perches on a nearby branch before entering the nest. About 40 percent of the time, the female turned her chest toward the male and flap her wings for a few seconds. Immediately the male entered the nest first, followed by the female.

However, when neither bird was flapping, which accounted for 44 percent of nest visits, the female usually entered the nest first. Only one male was observed flapping its wings repeatedly, and then the female moved in first. No flapping of wings was observed when each bird arrived separately.

“We can conclude that this wing flapping conveys ‘after you’ and encourages the male to enter the nest first,” Suzuki says. “This study is the first to demonstrate that birds can use wing movements to convey specific meanings.”

The findings suggest that great tits, and perhaps other bird species, communicate in a much more complex way than previously thought.

“There is a hypothesis that language evolved from communication through gestures,” Suzuki says. “Thus, these studies help us understand the evolution of complex communication, including our language.”