Birds Have Best Friends Too, Study Shows

In a discovery that challenges long-standing ideas about animal behavior, a new study has revealed that African superb starlings form long-term social bonds strikingly similar to human friendships.

According to a recent article by Jay Kakade for New Atlas, this 20-year study is one of the first to provide strong evidence of non-family cooperative relationships in wild animals.

Published in Nature, the research focused on superb starlings in central Kenya. These birds live in groups of 7 to 60 individuals, mixing relatives and non-relatives.

The most surprising finding? Starlings regularly help others outside their kin. Up to 16 “helpers” assist each breeding pair with tasks like feeding chicks and guarding nests, demonstrating a complex form of reciprocal altruism.

While helpers still showed a preference for family, they consistently supported unrelated individuals as well. This form of cooperation echoes Robert Trivers’ 1971 theory of reciprocal altruism—the idea that individuals can benefit by helping others with the expectation of future Support.

The long lifespan of superb starlings, who live over 15 years, may provide the social memory and opportunity needed to maintain these connections.

Professor Dustin Rubenstein of Columbia University, who led the study, explained that these birds aren’t just raising families—they’re living in dynamic communities.

“Many of these birds are essentially forming friendships over time,” he said. The research suggests we may have underestimated the social complexity of many animal species simply because we haven’t been observing them long enough.

As we continue to learn more about the emotional lives of animals, it’s clearer than ever: they’re not so different from us.

This article by Nicholas Vincent was first published by One Green Planet on 6 June 2025. Lead Image: Image Credit :David Havel/Shutterstock.

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