page_title: Cognitive ecology of individual recognition in colonial birds
section_title: Olfactory recognition
hierarchical_section_title: Cognitive ecology of individual recognition in colonial birds / Mechanism of recognition in colonial birds / Olfactory recognition
caption_attribution_description: Coloured figures of the birds of the British Islands / issued by Lord Lilford.
context_page_description: The cognitive ecology of individual recognition has been studied in many species, especially in primates or other mammalian species that exhibit complex social behaviours, but comparatively little research has been done on colonial birds. Colonial birds live in dense colonies in which many individuals interact with each other daily. For colonial birds, being able to identify and recognize individuals can be a crucial skill.
context_section_description: It has been believed for a long time that birds had a very bad sense of smell, but recent studies have demonstrated that some species of birds such as the procellariiformes have a quite developed sense of smell. Olfaction seems to be used in an array of different task such as for finding food, migrating and kin recognition. In burrowing species such as in puffins, auks and petrels, smells seem to be at the basis of mate and nest recognition. The procellariiformes, also known as tubed-noses, are one of the best studied groups when it comes to olfaction as they seem to have a quite developed sense of smell. A study done on storm petrels showed that not only do petrels use olfaction in order to find their burrow and their mate, but that they are also aware of their own smell. Petrels nest in dense colonies and use the smell of their mate or their own smell in order to find their burrow and avoid entering the wrong burrow. Such a mechanism of recognition has also been shown in auks as they mostly fly at night, keeping them from using spatial memory in order to find their burrow. When looking at the available literature, olfactory cues seems to be used mostly by colonial birds that nest in burrows.
  Concerning chick recognition in burrowing birds, a researcher called Eduardo Minguez (1997) showed that there was no chick recognition in storm petrels. One of the advantages of burrow nesting is that your chick is confined in the burrow until it is ready to fledge, eliminating the need for chick recognition. It is likely that chicks will acquire their "signature smell" only later upon fledging the parental nest. There are few instances of burrowing birds that have the mechanism of chick recognition, but as recognition is a costly mechanism, it tends to be lost in many bird species for which it is not necessary.
caption: European storm petrel exhibiting its tube nose
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