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Why Study Siberian Jays?
Why Study Siberian Jays?
Siberian jays are a group-living bird from the Corvid family that occurs throughout the whole northern Palearctic. Individuals scatter-hoard food in autumn to survive winter that lasts at the study site from October to April, and to feed nestlings. The social system of Siberian jays has a unique facet: besides a breeding pair, groups can include own offspring that remain up to 4 years with their parents, and unrelated non-breeders. This variation in kinship among non-breeders allows us to study the specific benefits of family living. Groups vary in their size between 2 to 7 individuals. The species is rather curious and thus, birds are easily attracted to observers without habituation. This provides us with the opportunity to do experiments with wild birds that usually require captive animals.
Female Siberian jay incubating eggs
The species is open-nesting, and in average, 60% of nests fail due to nest predation or cold spells during the breeding season. Given that Siberian jay breed early (nest building and egg laying takes place late March-early April), temperatures can be as low as -20°C during incubation. Snowmelt in May usually coincides with the nestling phase, but can in some years occur first after nestlings fledged. Given the early onset of egg laying, the nests are well insulated and females mostly start incubating when they lay the first egg. Females lay one egg per day, and thus, eggs usually hatch on consecutive days, leading to a dominance hierarchy among fledglings where earlier hatched offspring expel later hatched siblings 4-8 weeks after fledgling from the natal territory. These juveniles disperse and settle and non-kin non-breeders in other groups.
A submissive non-kin juvenile (left), family member foraging (right)
Fieldwork
Fieldwork
We use diverse methods to study Siberian jays, including regular behavioural observations of groups and field experiments. Given that the species is very curious, we can carry out experiments that usually only are done with captive animals. For example, we did a group service paradigm experiment with Siberian jays, as part of a larger study on the correlates of prosociality in corvids. We are currently using a synchronized 4 camera array to do 3-D posture reconstructions and assess social learning cues.
Fieldwork in winter and spring requires us to ski. Until recently we only used traditional wooden backcountry skis while we now also us more modern plastic skis particularly when it is warm and the snow is sticky.
Project History
Project History
Research on Siberian jays in the study population near Arvidsjaur was initiated by Folke Lindgren (1918-2018) in 1953. Folke was born in Akkavare, a small hamlet 10 km outside Arvidsjaur. He went to middle school in Arvidsjaur, requiring him to cycle or ski to school. After his education as teacher, he worked in the main school in Arvidsjaur and took his classes often out into the forest to awaken his pupils’ interest in nature. In his free time, Folke did research on Siberian jays, leading to several publications. He expanded his study site in response to logging, leading to long-term data on group composition and reproductive success in over 15 territories. Besides, he was a gifted artist and co-founded the cultural association in Arivdsjaur.
Given Folke’s know-how on Siberian jays, Jan Ekman started his research on Siberian jays in the same study population in 1989, and continued actively in the project until 2006. His research focused on understanding the social system and life-history consequences of delayed dispersal.
Jan Ekman © Sonia Heifetz
Folke Lindgren © Elisabeth Lindgren
Michael Griesser became project PI in 2004 and continued to expand the study population. Jan Ekman handed over the directorship of the project to Michael Griesser in 2012 when he retired. In 2023, Miya Warrington joined the project as PI. We currently study ca 40 groups in intensely managed forests and ca 40 groups in pristine boreal forests. This two study populations allow us to investigate the interplay between forest management and climate adaptations.
Michael Griesser
Miya Warrington
Methods
Methods
We use diverse methods to study Siberian jays, including regular behavioural observations of groups and field experiments. Given that the species is very curious, we can carry out experiments that usually only are done with captive animals. For example, we did a group service paradigm experiment with Siberian jays, as part of a larger study on the correlates of prosociality in corvids. We are currently using a synchronized 4 camera array to do 3-D posture reconstructions and assess social learning cues.
Fieldwork in winter and spring requires us to ski. Until recently we only used traditional wooden backcountry skis while we now also us more modern plastic skis particularly when it is warm and the snow is sticky.
Project Members and Collaborators
Project Members and Collaborators
Michael Griesser
Project Director
Project Director
Konstanz University
Peter Halvarsson
Collaborator
Collaborator
Swedish Agricultural University
PhD, MSc and BSc Students in the Project
PhD, MSc and BSc Students in the Project
Andrea Meltzer (2021-ongoing)
Saverio Lubrano (2021-ongoing)
Eleonore Lebeuf-Taylor (2021-ongoing)
Alex Chang (2022-ongoing)
Bohdan Sklepkovych (1993-1997): Kinship and conflict: resource competition in a proto-cooperative species: the Siberian jay. Stockholm University.
Sönke Eggers (1998-2002): Behaviour and life-history responses to chick provisioning under risk of nest predation. Uppsala University. PDF
Michael Griesser (1999-2003): The Nepotistic Parent; Predator Protection, Kinship and Philopatry. Uppsala University. PDF
Magdalena Nystrand (2002-2006): Effects of habitat quality on behavioural decisions and population dynamics in the Siberian jay. 2006. Uppsala University. PDF
Tobias Sahlman (2003-2006): Population Genetic Analyses of Natal Dispersal and Substructure in Three Bird Species. 2007. Uppsala University. PDF
Filipe Cunha (2012-2017): Sex, cooperation, and deception: anti-predatory behavior beyond avoiding death. 2017. Zurich University. PDF. Filipe did a side-project on Siberian jays, focussing on deceptive mobbing calls.
MSc students in the project
Alexandros Panagakos. 2009. Effect of kinship and aggressive interactions on feather growth in a group-living bird species. Uppsala University. PDF
Radoslav Kozma. 2011. Siberian jay friendship test: a look at how tight bird groups really are. PDF
Julian Klein. 2015. Resource allocation trade-offs exposed in the Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus). University of Zurich.
Charlotte Wroblewski. 2015. Does kinship influence learning efficiency of a foraging task? Field experiments in a social bird, the Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus) University of Zurich.
Kate Layton-Matthews. 2015. Environmental drivers of life-history traits and metapopulation dynamics. University of Zurich.
Maravillas Ruiz Miñano. 2016. Between groups interaction in Siberian Jays. University of Groningen.
Luca Arrigo. 2016. Attitude and early life stress modulate social learning of juvenile Siberian jays. ETH Zurich.
Agnes Olin. 2017. Dynamics of Siberian Jay Trait Variation and Vital Rates in a Heterogeneous Environment. University of Zurich.
Anja Müller. 2019. Behavioural response to predation risk in Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus) - effects of habitat structure and social rank. Technische Universität Braunschweig.
Melibee Morell. 2019. Study of the aggression of breeders toward non-breeders in Siberian jay species (Perisoreus infaustus) and the factors influencing these aggressions displayed and received. AgroSup Dijon.
Neha Singhal. 2022. Building a custom-annotated bird dataset and implementing computer vision algorithm for ecological research. University Konstanz.
Hasan Onur Kocahan. Ongoing. Individual Recognition with Colored Ring Identification on Siberian Jays. University Konstanz.
Maria Honkanen. Ongoing. Social buffering of stress in a group living bird. ongoing. Oulu University.
BSc Students in the project
Leo Ruth. 2016. Mate-guarding in Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus). Karlstad University. PDF
Carla Ambrosius. 2022. Effect of early life stress on the social phenotype of Siberian jays. Konstanz University.
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