1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff a production of I Heart Radio, Hey, 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:10,560 Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lorn vogel bomb here. When you see adorable 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,239 Speaker 1: little birds snacking on seeds at your bird feeder, or 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: flitting about like they're about to so a dress for Cinderella, 5 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: don't be fooled. Those birds will gang up and turn 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: on you in a tiny, fluttering heartbeat. When birds detect 7 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: a predator, they will start mobbing it. Mobbing here is 8 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,360 Speaker 1: when small birds join together to fend off a larger bird, 9 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: the small and large being relative terms. Here. Crows will 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: band together to mob a hawk, and starlings will come 11 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 1: together to mob a crow. Say, a bird or maybe 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,479 Speaker 1: a pair of birds, is near their nest of eggs 13 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: or hatchlings. When they spy a predator. It could be 14 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: an owl, or a cat, or even a human. The 15 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:53,840 Speaker 1: little bird will let out a call of alarm that 16 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: alerts its squad. The squad arrives, and they physically mob 17 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: the predator. Sometimes birds join the mob not because they 18 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,479 Speaker 1: heard the call, but because they saw other birds headed 19 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: for a mob. As studies have documented going back to 20 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, the birds have an arsenal of moves 21 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: at their disposal they can hop and flap in the 22 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: predator's face, they can dive bombit. They can even shove 23 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: it around a bit if they're feeling brave, and some 24 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: birds go for the full gross out factor by pooping 25 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 1: or puking on the predator while they're mobbing it. They aim, 26 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,280 Speaker 1: and they can be very precise about it. Though. While 27 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: this is gross to us, who knows what hawks think 28 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: is disgusting, But all that wet globby stuff serves a 29 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: practical purpose too. It's sticky weight can ground the larger bird. Also, 30 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: hummingbirds in a nine study showed that they're quite aware 31 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: of their needle like beaks. They zoom in towards a 32 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: predator and faint poking at its eyeballs. If that doesn't 33 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: make an owl flinch, nothing will. So how can you 34 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: recognize a mob? No matter what good feathers taught us, 35 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: the signs of a made bird aren't the same as 36 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: a made man. But it can still be pretty easy 37 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: to catch a bird mob happening. Often you'll see and 38 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,799 Speaker 1: hear a lot of excited birds in a tree. They're 39 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: screaming and flapping and making a huge ruckus. There might 40 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,720 Speaker 1: even be a half dozen different species taking part. It's 41 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: very likely that there's a predator in the tree and 42 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,639 Speaker 1: those birds are mobbing it. If the predator doesn't get 43 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: annoyed enough to leave, like maybe it's a taxidermy owl 44 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,239 Speaker 1: being used in an experiment, the mobbing birds can keep 45 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: it up for hours. It will likely come as no 46 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: surprise that crows are the biggest fans of mobbing other birds. 47 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:44,120 Speaker 1: They love to use this technique, and they are loud 48 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: about it. If you have crows in your neighborhood, you 49 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: have almost certainly experienced the sheer joy of a tree 50 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,119 Speaker 1: laden with black crows screaming their heads off for far 51 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,440 Speaker 1: longer than they could possibly need to. Mobbing achieves three 52 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: things For smaller birds, it can scare or annoy the 53 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: predator enough that it moves on. The mobbing birds can 54 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 1: make enough of a distraction that the predator won't be 55 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: able to find the nest that they're probably looking for. 56 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: And it can tell all the other animals around that 57 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: there's a predator in the area, thus ruining the predator's 58 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: surprise factor. Plus in researchers found yet another reason for 59 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: birds to mob showing off for the ladies. According to 60 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: a paper published in behavioral ecology and sociobiology. Male birds 61 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: will mob less threatening predators more aggressively if there are 62 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: female birds around to watch, and so if the threat 63 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: of danger is actually pretty low, the males will be 64 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: particularly daring so the females can see what a great 65 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: mate did be. If the predator is more dangerous, though, 66 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: the males show off less and merely get the mobbing 67 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: job done. Today's episode was written by Kristen Hall Geisler 68 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more in the so 69 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: lots of other topics because it how stuff works dot com. 70 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I heart Radio. For 71 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: more podcasts on my heart Radio is the i heart 72 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 73 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 1: favorite shows.