DOI: 10.5285/a1c9b0cc-5585-49c5-a38f-fe05240edccf
title: Great tit behavioural responses to 3D-printed insect replicas, featuring combinations of traits from wasps and flies, in Madingley Wood, Cambridge, UK, 2021-2023

description: This dataset relates to two closely related experiments conducted using similar methodologies: one - Discrimination Ability experiment - from December 2021 to May 2022 and another - Multiple Models experiment - from October 2022 to April 2023. Data describe the responses of wild birds (mainly Great tits Parus major) towards feeding stations where insect-like stimuli concealed a possible food reward.

Data include: Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag records of birds visiting the feeders (note that not all birds were tagged); demographic information about the tagged birds; timings and set-up of the feeders used at each session; and which stimuli from each session were “attacked” (and in what order). 
description: Feeding stations were set up in Madingley Wood, Cambridge, consisting of an array of dishes covered by lids bearing 3D printed insect-like stimuli. Wild birds (mainly Great tits Parus major) could visit the feeding stations and open lids to reveal a possible mealworm within.
In the Discrimination Ability experiment, birds acted as model predators and were trained to associate a fly stimulus with a reward and common wasp stimulus with no reward. They were then presented with a range of different novel mimetic stimuli with varying levels of similarity to the wasp stimulus. In the Multiple Models experiment, we extended the scenario by adding a second type of unrewarding wasp stimulus (with a second treatment that only included a single wasp type).
Motion-sensitive cameras positioned above the feeding stations recorded bird behaviour. PIT-tagged birds were recorded by antennae positioned at the entrance to each feeding station, connected to a data logger. A researcher visited the site periodically (typically every 1-2 days) to observe and record which lids had been removed and to download video and logger data, before resetting for a new session. From a defined pool, stimuli were assigned to dishes in a random configuration for a given feeder and session. This configuration was generated in R (v 4.3.2) and stored for later cross-referencing against the dish-opening data.
Videos were reviewed at a later date to observe the order in which dishes were opened within a single session (and, for the multiple models experiment, the exact timing of each event). Where possible, video footage of birds entering the feeder was cross-referenced against logged PIT-tag data to determine which individual bird was responsible for opening a given dish. However, there are many gaps in this cross-referencing where birds failed to trigger the logger, were not videoed entering the feeder, or when it was not possible to distinguish two closely-timed logger events. 
Logged PIT tags were cross-referenced against a database maintained by the Madingley Ringing Group to find details of species, sex and original ringing date.
Data have been cleaned (for example, removal of invalid or unused data points) and formatted using custom scripts in R v4.3.2.