Cognition in the Paridae

In this review, we present an overview of studies on cognition in the family Paridae (tits, titmice, and chickadees). Parids are especially interesting for cognition studies for several reasons. First, they can live under various ecological systems, involving different cognitive strategies, that influence life-history traits. Hence, some species are large-scale scatter hoarders with a highly developed spatial memory, whereas others are flexible foragers that can learn to adjust to almost any possible food source. Second, some populations have adapted well to urban environments, whereas other populations in the same species remain in their original forest habitat, making intraspecific comparisons of urban and rural populations straightforward. Due to these and other factors, parids provide a unique opportunity to study many aspects of cognition, thereby contributing to the understanding of the evolution of various cognitive traits. We cover topics such as spatial memory, social learning, innovation, executive functions, tool use, vocal communication, and the influence of environment, sex, personality, and motivation on cognitive skills. Despite the fact that this passerine family is widely distributed across Eurasia, North America, and Africa and that there have been innumerable studies on parid behavior and cognition, no comprehensive review on this topic has previously been published. We discuss the progression of cognition research in this family to date and address existing shortcomings and possible future directions for the field.