Higher numbered chicken (nice feathers) putting the lower numbered chicken (oh, my!) in its place.
Now that I’m retired, I try to eat breakfast on my patio as often as I can. Since I live in San Diego, CA, it’s almost a given that I can do that—oh… about 300 days/year.
This morning, my wife and I refilled the bird feeder. I sat, praying and watching the feeder, with our “water feature” trickling and bubbling with an occasional splish in the background.
Since birds had been checking on the food availability before we refilled the feeder, I wasn’t surprised when several sparrows and finches arrived at the restocked buffet. If you are watching such happenings with an inexperienced or unconcerned eye, what you observe appears to be random comings and goings of birds to and from the feeder.
However, as I watched I noticed that some of the birds always got a perch on the feeder—even if it meant chasing another bird off the perch. Following the actions of a bird who’s been chased away, I observed that they sat at a distance until the more aggressive bird left the feeder. Only then did they return to its meal.
Many/Most bird societies are like that. A pecking order exists where each bird is placed in a sequence of decreasing dominance from 1 à (however many birds are in the flock). Whenever a bird higher in the order decides to do something, the birds below that spot in the order will acquiesce to the higher-ranking bird.
Normally, this occurs with little or no resistance from the bird(s) lower in the pecking order. I don’t know why sometimes the lower-ranked bird decides not to acquiesce. Most commonly, resistance is some form of display behavior. Should the lower-ranked bird out display the higher, the winner moves up in the order.
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| Penguin pecking order. |
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| Chickens displaying resistance. My money's on the left chicken as higher ranked. What do you see that might make me suspect that? |
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| It's not just girls with pecking orders. Most of the boy photos show physical violence in lieu of social ostracism. I chose not to show that. |
I wonder how often we (me) as adults are guilty of perpetuating a pecking order in our job, social group, or even family. I know that some hierarchy is necessary for the functioning of nearly all groups. Pecking orders are far from the best choice.
I know I’ve been guilty at times of doing things myself because I can and not allowing others to get the experience and be fulfilled. I’m better at releasing control now than I used to be, but it’s still something I need to work on.
Bottom Line:
It’s why we maintain our pecking orders that deserves our (my) consideration.
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