International Journal of Comparative Psychology

Individual recognition is a complex social learning process in which idiosyncratic characteristics of a conspecific are learned and later used to discriminate this conspecific from others. Many social species of birds appear to be capable of individual recognition. However, it is possible that at least under some circumstances these and other species discriminate conspecifics not based on individual recognition but instead, by recognizing them as members of one or more social categories. Many references to individual recognition in the literature have neglected to address this distinction. For example, Riters and Balthazart (1998) reported that male quail were capable of recognizing individual females with which they had and had not copulated, but their experimental design may have unintentionally created two social categories of females (sexually receptive and non-receptive). The present set of experiments replicated Riters’ and Balthazart’s findings (Experiment 1) and then tested male quail for their ability to recognize females based on physical cues only (Experiment 2), physical and behavioral cues (Experiment 3), and the social categorization cues associated with female receptivity (Experiment 4). The results suggested that male quail are capable of recognizing individual females with which they have and have not copulated, but this recognition is not based onphysical, non-sexual, or sexual receptivity behaviors in isolation. Instead, individual recognition occurred only when the males were able to utilize all of these potentially distinctive female attributes in combination. The results also suggested that female receptivity responses may be unique and idiosyncratic, varying along one or more dimensions.