Notice: This blog is not about bullying, although many consider what you'll read as part of that umbrella. I'm defining bullying as overt physical or verbal attacks on an individual or group. Pecking orders most often ignore those low in the order, maybe even on notch below, rather than attack those. |
| Penguins keeping the pecking order intact. |
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.
The other 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/splash 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 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 their meal.
Many/Most bird societies are like that. There exists a pecking order where each bird is placed in a sequence of decreasing dominance from #1--> however many birds are in the flock. Whenever a bird higher in the order decides to do something, those 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. Sometimes a lower-ranked bird decides not to acquiesce. I don’t know why. Most commonly, that leads to some form of display behavior. Should the lower-ranked bird "out display" the higher-ranked bird, the winner moves up in the order.
When I taught this behavioral pattern in my high school and college biology classes, I told my students to think back to their days in middle school or junior high. Hormone ravaged pre-adolescents act a lot like a pecking order—but with considerably less restraint in their displays.
Most schools now offer anti-bullying counseling and support. This is a good thing. But, it's still rough being the 51st chicken in a 51 bird flock.
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| This is a classic example of pecking order as I define it. The two high in the order girls on the right are ignoring the lower ranking girl in the background. |
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.
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 how we maintain our pecking orders deserves your (my) consideration.
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I grew up the youngest in my family and always saw myself at the bottom of the totem pole, even throughout school. About a year ago I went from being the Administrative Assistant for our department to the head of the department. Not only do I have a new position but I also have a whole new perspective!
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