The researchers found that females often fluttered their wings to prompt males to enter the nest first. Females use this gesture more often than males, but the reason for this needs to be explored in future investigations. Credit: Suzuki and Sugita, 2024/ Current Biology
symbolic gestures, such as showing an open hand to signal “after you,” require complex cognitive skills, and there was no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of such abilities in animals other than humans.
“We were surprised to find that the results were much clearer than we had expected. We observed that Japanese tits flutter their wings exclusively in the presence of their mate, and upon witnessing this behavior, the mate almost always entered the nest box first,” explained Suzuki.
Japanese tit uses wing movements for gestural communication