PRC, CNRS, IFCE, INRA, Université de Tours, Nouzilly, France.
ZooParc de Beauval & Beauval Nature, Saint-Aignan, France.
PLoS One. 2018 Aug 22;13(8):e0201762. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201762. eCollection 2018.
Mainly recognized for their cognitive performance, the visual communication system and, particularly, the potential function of facial displays in parrots remain thus far unexplored. Here, we provide the first descriptive study of facial display use in captive blue-and-yellow macaws. We observed the feather position (sleeked or ruffled) on the crown, nape and cheek at the group level during the macaws' daily routine and individually while interacting with a familiar animal caretaker. In the latter context, blushing was also assessed on the bare skin of the cheek. Group level observations showed that crown, nape and cheek feathers ruffling was more frequent in activities requiring no locomotion than in activities requiring locomotion. With the animal caretaker, crown ruffling was significantly more frequent when the caretaker was actively engaging with the parrot than during a control phase with no mutual interaction. In addition, a significantly higher proportion of naïve observers judged blushing as being present on photographs taken during the mutual interaction phase than during the control phase. We thus showed significant variations in facial displays and bare skin colour based on the birds' social context and activity. Our results broaden the scope for further studies to determine whether parrots' faces provide visual social signals.
主要以认知表现为特征，视觉交流系统，特别是面部展示在鹦鹉中的潜在功能，迄今为止仍未得到探索。在这里，我们提供了对圈养蓝黄金刚鹦鹉面部展示使用的首次描述性研究。我们在鹦鹉的日常生活中观察了群体水平上头顶、颈背和脸颊上的羽毛位置（光滑或竖起），并在与熟悉的动物饲养员互动时观察了个体的羽毛位置。在后一种情况下，还评估了脸颊裸露皮肤上的脸红。群体水平的观察表明，在不需要运动的活动中，头顶、颈背和脸颊的羽毛竖起比需要运动的活动更频繁。与动物饲养员在一起时，当饲养员与鹦鹉积极互动时，头顶竖起的情况明显比没有相互互动的对照阶段更为频繁。此外，在互动阶段拍摄的照片中，有更高比例的无经验观察者判断出脸红的存在，而在对照阶段则没有。因此，我们根据鸟类的社会环境和活动，显示出面部表情和裸露皮肤颜色的显著变化。我们的研究结果拓宽了进一步研究的范围，以确定鹦鹉的面部是否提供视觉社交信号。
