The Interactions Behind The Rankings

April 15, 2021

This past winter, a community of more than 1,000 people watched and recorded data in video clips taken from the Panama Fruit Feeder cam. They recorded two key pieces of information: (1) whenever one bird attempted to take the perch or food of another bird, known as a displacement), and (2) whether this displacement was successful. Of the 1,367 displacements recorded, 319 displacements were between different species and successful.

Using these successful displacements between different species, Cornell Lab researcher Dr. Eliot Miller ran a model that returned a dominance score for each species. The more positive the score, the higher the ranking; the more negative the score, the lower the ranking.

We’ve begun to explore the relationship between dominance score and mass, and now invite you to take a look at another way to visualize the dominance hierarchy.

Play around–hover over, click, and drag the photos in the visualization of the thirteen commonly seen species on the Panama Fruit Feeder cam.

Buff-throated Saltator by Fernando Burgalin Sequeria/Macaulay Library; Chestnut-headed Oropendola by Carlos Sanchez/Macaulay Library; Clay-colored Thrush by Larry Therrien/Macaulay Library; Dusky-faced Tanager by Andres Vasquez/Macaulay Library; Crimson-backed Tanager by Rolando Jordan/Macaulay Library; Flame-rumped Tanager by Christian Nunes/Macaulay Library; Gray-cowled Wood-Rail by Marco Valentini/Macaulay Library; Gray-headed Chachalaca by Robbin Mallett/Macaulay Library; Orange-billed Sparrow by Doug Beach/Macaulay Library; Red-crowned Woodpecker by Neil Diaz/Macaulay Library; Rufous Motmot by Daniel Irons/Macaulay Library; Silver-throated Tanager by Paul Koker/Macaulay Library; Summer Tanager by Alex Burdo/Macaulay Library

Share your questions, thoughts, and interpretations in the forum below.