LOCAL ENHANCEMENT AND SEED CHOICE IN THE JUVENILE CANARY, SERINUS-CANARIUS

The influence of the presence and feeding behaviour of the father on the behaviour of young canaries was examined. The naive offspring had access simultaneously to canary seed or oat seeds in the same place as did the parent, who either did or did not have access to seeds (canary seeds, oats or hemp). In the absence of an adult, the juveniles took, husked and ate few seeds. The presence of the father increased the picking up, husking and ingestion of seeds by the juveniles, who also tended to feed in the same place as the parent (local enhancement). The choice of seed was also influenced by the parent's behaviour as the young birds picked up more oat seeds when these seeds were available to the father. This was not observed for canary seeds, which tended to be selected spontaneously by the young birds. The amounts of canary seeds and oats husked and ingested by the juveniles did not only depend on seed choice. Manipulation of canary seed by the father facilitated its husking by the juvenile, whereas manipulation of oats by the father had no facilitatory effect on the use of this seed by the young birds. Overall, the effects of social facilitation tended to favour ingestion of seeds spontaneously selected by the offspring. (C) 1995 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour