Status signalling and the ability to recognize dominants: an experiment with siskins (Carduelis spinus)

Because dominants usually exploit others and take a disproportionate share of the available resources, we should expect foragers to be choosy as to which individuals they join. Here we show that siskins (Carduelis spinus) discriminate between dominant and subordinate individuals on the first encounter without requiring cues such as overt aggression, and prefer to join subordinate individuals. Experimental enlargement or removal of the siskin black bib, which has been shown previously to be a reliable predictor of dominance, strongly suggests that dominance discrimination is based on the use of badges of status.