Overview
ManyBirds is a multi-site collaborative Open Science approach that aims to provide new insight into the evolution of avian cognition and behavior through large-scale comparative studies, following the lead of exemplary ManyPrimates, ManyBabies and ManyDogs projects. We are open to collaboration across all sites, including labs, zoos, field and home.
TWITTER OPEN-CALL for study 1

MB aims to increase species & sample representation, across lab/zoo/field/homes. Now inviting collaborators for Study 1 on neophobia in birds, building on related @CurrentBiology paper in corvids (https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982221014688…). Testing is quick & minimal labour. 2/
ManyBirds approach
What guides us
Collaborative
Collaborative studies enable large-scale comparisons of species and individuals, a prerequisite to study why different cognitive abilities may have evolved.
Open-science
Open Science practices ensure wide accessibility, as transparency and pre-registration is necessary for effective collaborations.
Comparative
Comparative studies allow for a wider focus on the evolution of avian cognition and behaviour in relation to socio-ecological factors as well as phylogenetic, developmental and longitudinal approaches.
How does it work ?
ManyBirds infrastructure and collaboration

Project 1 : Neophobia in birds
For Study 1, we have several confirmed international collaborators, including with 10 corvid lab leaders (Miller et al, 2021), and are in the process of inviting and recruiting new collaborators. In general, we invite collaborations relating to data collection, as well as various other potential contributions, such as experimental design, data analysis and manuscript writing.
Deadline for data collection and submission : 16th April 2023
GET INVOLVED
CORE TEAM
ManyBirds is led by a core team of researchers, with separate specific study teams formed to lead on each study. If you are interested in collaborating or would like more information about the ManyBirds Study 1 on neophobia in birds, please review our projects, Sign up documents or contact us at: manybirdsproject1@gmail.com.
Next Events
Talk at International Society for Behavioural Ecology
Talk at Animal Behavior Society
Talk at Animal Welfare Group Nigeria
PUBLICATIONS OF 2021
2021
M, Lambert; S, Reber; E, Garcia-Pelegrin; B, Farrar; R, Miller
ManyBirds: A multi-site collaborative approach to avian cognition and behaviour research. Journal Article
In: Animal Behavior & Cognition, 2021.
@article{M2021,
title = {ManyBirds: A multi-site collaborative approach to avian cognition and behaviour research. },
author = {Lambert M and Reber S and Garcia-Pelegrin E and Farrar B and Miller R},
editor = {Psyarxiv},
url = {https://www.animalbehaviorandcognition.org/article.php?id=1309},
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/83xkt},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-11},
urldate = {2021-11-11},
journal = {Animal Behavior & Cognition},
abstract = {Comparative cognitive and behaviour research aims to investigate cognitive evolution by comparing performance in different species to understand how these abilities have evolved. Ideally, this requires large and diverse samples, however, these can be difficult to obtain by single labs or institutions, leading to potential reproducibility and generalisation issues with small, less representative samples. To help mitigate these issues, we are establishing a multi-site collaborative Open Science approach called ManyBirds, with the aim of providing new insight into the evolution of avian cognition and behaviour through large-scale comparative studies, following the lead of exemplary ManyPrimates, ManyBabies and ManyDogs projects. Here, we outline a) why we should study birds, including the origin of modern birds, avian brains, convergent evolution of cognition, and the replicability crisis; b) the current state of the avian cognition field, including a ‘snapshot’ review; c) the ManyBirds project, with plans, infrastructure, limitations, implications and future directions. In sharing this process, we hope that this may be useful for other researchers in devising similar projects in other taxa, like non-avian reptiles or mammals, and to encourage further collaborations with ManyBirds and related ManyX projects. Ultimately, we hope to promote collaboration between ManyX projects to allow for wider investigation of the evolution of cognition across all animals, including potentially humans.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
R, Miller; M, Lambert; A, Frohnweiser; K, Brecht; T, Bugnyar; I, Crampton; E, Garcia-Pelegrin; K, Gould; A, Greggor; E, Izawa; D, Kelly; Z, Li; Y, Luo; L, Luong; J, Massen; A, Nieder; S, Reber; M, Schiestl; P, Sepehri; J, Stevens; AH, Taylor; L, Wang; LM, Wolff; Y, Zhang; NS, Clayton
Related paper : Socio-ecological correlates of neophobia in corvids. Journal Article
In: Current Biology, 2021.
@article{nokey,
title = {Related paper : Socio-ecological correlates of neophobia in corvids.},
author = {Miller R and Lambert M and Frohnweiser A and Brecht K and Bugnyar T and Crampton I and Garcia-Pelegrin E and Gould K and Greggor A and Izawa E and Kelly D and Li Z and Luo Y and Luong L and Massen J and Nieder A and Reber S and Schiestl M and Sepehri P and Stevens J and Taylor AH and Wang L and Wolff LM and Zhang Y and Clayton NS },
editor = {BioRxiv},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982221014688?dgcid=rss_sd_all},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.045},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-11},
urldate = {2021-11-11},
journal = {Current Biology},
abstract = {Behavioural responses to novelty, including fear and subsequent avoidance of novel stimuli, behaviours referred to as neophobia, determine how animals interact with their environment. Neophobia aids in navigating risk and impacts on adaptability and survival. There is variation within and between individuals and species, however, lack of large-scale, comparative studies critically limits investigation of the socio-ecological drivers of neophobia. In this study, we tested responses to novel objects and food (alongside familiar food) versus a baseline (familiar food alone) in 10 corvid species (241 subjects) across 10 labs worldwide. There were species differences in the latency to touch familiar food in the novel object and food conditions relative to the baseline. Three of seven socio-ecological factors influenced object neophobia: 1) use of urban habitat (vs not), 2) territorial pair vs family group sociality and 3) large vs small flock size (whereas range, caching, hunting live animals, and genus did not); while only flock size influenced food neophobia. We found that, overall, individuals were temporally and contextually repeatable (i.e. consistent) in their novelty responses in all conditions, indicating neophobia is a stable behavioural trait. With this study, we have established a network of corvid researchers, demonstrating potential for further collaboration to explore the evolution of cognition in corvids and other bird species. These novel findings enable us, for the first time in corvids, to identify the socio-ecological correlates of neophobia and grant insight into specific elements that drive higher neophobic responses in this avian family group.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}