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Birds' ability to learn from watching their peers varies with age, sex and social rank.
In a study led by Lucy Aplin at the University of Oxford, UK, wild-caught blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus; famous for learning to pierce foil caps on milk bottles delivered to British homes to get the cream) were placed in an aviary with a covered tray containing waxworms, the blue tit's favourite snack. Eight experimental groups totalling 56 birds could observe 'demonstrator' birds that had been trained to get worms by either flipping up or piercing the covers. About half of these birds learned to get the worms, but when 32 other birds were given the tray in the absence of demonstrators, none of them learned the skill. Juvenile females were almost twice as likely to learn the task as other blue tits, and dominant males less likely.
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Young female birds get the worm. Nature 500, 257 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500257f
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/500257f
