Overview
- A peer-reviewed paper in the British Ecological Society journal People and Nature reports that city birds let men approach about one metre closer before taking flight.
- The team logged 2,701 standardized approaches in parks across Czechia, France, Germany, Poland and Spain, covering 37 species from pigeons to magpies.
- Male and female observers were matched for height and clothing and used the same straight-line approach, yet the sex gap in flight distance held across species.
- The authors say they cannot yet explain the effect and propose testing specific cues such as scent, body shape or gait in controlled follow-up experiments.
- Prior studies show rodents experience more stress when handled by male researchers, a pattern the authors cite as context for how animals may read human cues.