Food storing by marsh tits

Wild marsh tits (Parus palustris) were allowed to hoard radioactively labelled sunflower seeds, which were subsequently found using a portable scintillation counter. Seeds were stored singly, in various sites close to the ground. Different birds favoured different types of site, although this preference was changeable. Seed density decreased with increasing distance from the feeder, and there was a negative correlation between seed sequence number and the distance it was carried. Hoarded seeds disappeared more rapidly than control seeds in identical sites 100 cm away, suggesting that the birds remember their exact location. Seeds also tended to be stored and recovered in the same sequence. The adaptive significance of these results is discussed.