Curious as to whether jackdaws — members of the crow family — could follow human eyes, Auguste von Bayern and Nathan Emery, then at the University of Cambridge, UK, offered food to hand-raised jackdaws. The birds took longer to nab a proffered nibble if the food was the subject of a stranger's stare, and they seemed to be watching the eyes rather than the direction of the head (see variations of head and eye attitudes, pictured). In a separate experiment, the birds needed moving, rather than static, eye signals from a familiar person to understand communication about the location of hidden food.
The researchers speculate that jackdaws evolved this eye-following ability to interact with one another. However, they add that the birds followed by the study have spent their whole lives with humans.
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Animal behaviour: Regarding jackdaws. Nature 458, 810 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458810d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/458810d