Junk food fight: Science tests how birds compete for Cheetos
WASHINGTON — It’s the early bird that gets the Cheetos. But it’s the bigger bird that steals it away.
Behavioural ecologist Rhea Esposito used the snack food to see how two types of smart birds— smaller magpies and bigger crows — interact and compete for food.
Birds, like many of us when we’re forced to admit it, apparently like Cheetos. Both birds are also naturally suspicious of new things.
And the bright orange colour also solved a problem for Esposito. The traditional bait food, nuts and seeds, were hard to see for Esposito, who would watch from her car about 20 feet away. Cheetos — or sometimes their cheaper and yellower generic equivalent — worked well.