[mou] Intelligent Barn Swallows - Fascinating Story from St. Paul Pioneer Press

[Paul Budde]

>From the St. Paul Pioneer Press
Sat, Jun. 26, 2004

Birds opening the coop
Nesting barn swallows figure out how to gain access to the Maplewood Home
Depot, amazing workers and wildlife experts.

BY KERMIT PATTISON
Pioneer Press


Perhaps bird brains should be given a little more credit.

Some barn swallows apparently have figured out how to operate motion
detector doors at the Home Depot store in Maplewood in order to nest indoors
safe from weather and predators.

Wildlife biologists from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are
observing the birds as an unusual example of learned behavior and adaptation
to the human environment.

"I thought this is so unusual that it needs to be recorded and put in the
book of knowledge on barn swallows," said Keith Stomberg, the Home Depot
employee who first noticed the phenomenon. "This takes deductive reasoning.
The term 'bird brain' now has got to be modified."

Steve Kittelson, a DNR wildlife specialist, said it remains unclear to what
degree the swallows have "learned" to trigger the motion sensors. Obviously,
the birds have figured out that if they circle outside — much as they would
instinctively do in front of a closed barn door — they will eventually get
through. The question is whether they realize that their own presence
actually triggers the door to open.

"It's very interesting and amazing to watch that they can make this work to
their advantage," Kittelson said. "It certainly gives them a secure site for
nesting. They've eliminated a lot of predators and weather elements. They
even have air conditioning."

This year marks the fourth spring the swallows have taken up residence
inside the giant home improvement retailer at 2360 White Bear Ave. Now there
are at least a dozen nests inside various entrances, said store manager
Gregg Barker.

"They'll operate all the doors," said Barker. "All of them do. To get
inside, they'll flutter right underneath these sensors until it opens."

The cavernous store has become an attraction for birdwatchers.

"One lady, she stops in once a week just to check them out," said Barker. "I
had a couple groups bird watching who come and set up videos to tape them."

Stomberg said he first noticed the unusual behavior about three years ago
while working at the contractor's desk near a set of automatic doors.

He said the swallows would flutter by the motion detectors until the door
opened and even would do so as a courtesy for birds on the other side who
wanted to get through.

"One of the assistant managers locked the door early," Stomberg recalled.
"The barn swallows weren't done yet. They actually picked him and harassed
him until he unlocked the door like, 'Hey! Unlock the door dummy, I'm not
done feeding my kids!' "

Stomberg said he called the Department of Natural Resources last year. The
DNR officials who came to investigate last spring initially were skeptical,
he said, but then "picked their jaws up off the floor" as they watched the
birds.

Carrol Henderson, nongame wildlife supervisor for the DNR, said his team
immediately saw swallows flying in and out of the door as they fed their
young. Furthermore, he said the birds apparently remember the behavior from
year to year and return to the same spot after winter migrations to Central
and South America.

"It expands our appreciation for the fact that there are lots of different
birds and animals who may have intelligence greater than we acknowledge but
normally they don't have a way of expressing it," said Henderson. "In this
case, they're doing something above and beyond normal behavior. Here's a
little piece of technology where they figured out the motion detector."


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Kermit Pattison can be reached at kpattison@pioneerpress.com or at
651-228-2183.


Paul Budde
Minneapolis, Minnesota
pbudde@earthlink.net