We continue with the scaly-breast Munia. These photos were taken slightly later than yesterday when the sun was up, but still soft. Same place as they continued to forage close to bridespool road in the New Territories.
Much sharper crisper images, but with some shadow.
The following is taken from Wikipedia, and explains some interesting ideas about their social behaviour. The original source is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-breasted_munia
Flock size tradeoffs
Studies on foraging have examined the effect of group size in reducing time spent on predator vigilance, thereby increasing feeding efficiency. According to the "many-eyes" hypothesis, a reduction in the individual time spent on vigilance against threats in larger groups allows for more time to be spent on searching for food and feeding. Vigilance is greatest among solitary individuals and reduces as the group size increases to about four. The birds collect seeds more quickly in larger groups, reflecting a decrease in individual vigilance, a decrease in handling time, and an increase in both search speed and focus when foraging. A foraging group
Individuals may also take advantage of group foraging by "joining" members that have found food. The options to seek food or to join others that have discovered food involves information sharing and has been studied through what are termed "producer-scrounger models". Foraging models
When foraging, scaly-breasted munia can search as individuals or search for others that have found food and join them. The economic consequences of the decision to join others has been modeled in two ways: the producer-scrounger model and the information sharing model. These models are based on hypotheses that differ in the degree of compatibility that is assumed between the two food and joining opportunity search modes.
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