Social learning and culture in birds: emerging patterns and relevance to conservation

There is now abundant evidence for a role of social learning and culture in
shaping behaviour in a range of avian species across multiple contexts,
from migration routes in geese and foraging behaviour in crows, to
passerine song. Recent emerging evidence has further linked culture to
fitness outcomes in some birds, highlighting its potential importance for
conservation. Here, we first summarize the state of knowledge on social
learning and culture in birds, focusing on the best-studied contexts of
migration, foraging, predation and song. We identify extensive knowledge
gaps for some taxa but argue that existing evidence suggests that: (i)
social learning and culture are taxonomically clustered and that (ii) reliance
on social learning in one behavioural domain does not predict reliance
across others. Together, we use this to build a predictive framework to
aid conservationists in species-specific decision-making under imperfect
knowledge. Second, we review evidence for a link between culture and
conservation in birds. We argue that understanding which behaviours
birds are likely to learn socially can help refine conservation strategies,
improving the trajectories of threatened populations. Last, we present
practical steps for how consideration of culture can be integrated into
conservation actions including reintroductions, translocations and captive
breeding programmes.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Animal culture: conservation in a
changing world’.