SPATIAL CUES FOR CACHE RETRIEVAL BY BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES

Food-storing birds relocate scattered caches of food using surrounding features and objects as visual cues to the location of caches. Black- capped chickadees, Parus atricapillus, were observed storing food in a n enclosure in which the visual cues available to the birds could be c ontrolled. In the first experiment, distal objects on the walls of the enclosure and proximal objects at cache sites were both present when chickadees stored sunflower seeds in artificial trees. Removal of dist al objects prior to cache recovery significantly reduced search accura cy, while removal of proximal objects had no significant effect on acc uracy. In a second experiment, birds stored seeds with only distal obj ects present. Rotation of these objects around the walls of the chambe r significantly reduced search accuracy. Birds searched for stored foo d at sites that were correct with respect to the distal objects, rathe r than at the original cache sites. These results show that black-capp ed chickadees remember the position of caches with respect to prominen t global features of the environment.