Do birds care about the color of your backyard feeder? And do city birds behave differently from their rural counterparts? In this episode, we dive into a controlled winter experiment conducted across 43 sites in east-central Poland, where researchers tested green vs. yellow bird feeders to understand how birds respond to novelty, especially in environments with different levels of urbanization.
On page 3, Figure 1 shows the experimental setup: two identical wooden feeders placed side-by-side, one painted green (a color birds usually favor) and the other yellow (a color often avoided)
Across towns and villages, cameras recorded every visit.
What birds actually did is fascinating:
* Green feeders received significantly more visits than yellow ones
* Urban birds visited feeders more often than rural birdsLikely because natural food is scarcer in cities, a point emphasized in the discussion section
* Yellow feeders were consistently avoidedBirds may associate yellow with warning coloration (aposematism), as discussed on page 5.
* But the researchers found no difference between urban and rural birds in color avoidanceAlthough the initial hypothesis predicted rural birds would fear the yellow feeder more due to higher neophobia, the data showed both groups avoided yellow similarly.
* Great Tits dominated the experimentThey were the first species to arrive in 39 out of 43 trials
This episode explores why feeder color matters, what it reveals about bird sensory perception, and how life in the city vs. countryside shapes feeding decisions. You’ll learn:
* Why urban birds may rely more on feeders due to reduced natural food
* How color associations (like yellow as a warning signal) influence foraging
* Why neophobia might not differ as much between habitats as expected
* What all this means for anyone who feeds birds at home
Whether you’re a backyard bird enthusiast, a behavioral ecology fan, or simply curious about a window bird feeder and what birds see when they look at your feeder, this study offers surprising insights into how birds navigate human-altered environments.
