Adapting to exploit new food sources may be essential, particularly in winter, when the impact of food limitation on survival of individuals is critical. One of the most important additional sources of food for birds in human settlements is birdfeeders. At a large spatial scale, we experimentally provided birdfeeders with four different kinds of food to analyze exploitation and use of a novel food supply provided by humans. Nine species started foraging at the new birdfeeders. The species that exploited the new feeders the fastest was the great tit. Use of novel food sources was faster in urban habitats and the presence of other feeders reduced the time until a new feeder was located. Urbanization may be associated with behavioural skills, technical innovations and neophilia resulting in faster discovery of new food sources. This process is accelerated by the experience of feeder use in the vicinity, with a strong modifying effect of the number of domestic cats.

] Faculty of Biological Sciences University of Zielona Góra Prof Z Szafrana St 1 PL 65 516 Zielona Góra Poland [2] Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Faculty of Environmental Sciences Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning Kamýcká 129 CZ 165 00 Prague 6 Czech Republic

Department of Avian Biology and Ecology Faculty of Biology Adam Mickiewicz University Umultowska 89 PL 61 614 Poznań Poland

Department of Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Anthropology University of Szczecin Wąska 13 PL 71 412 Szczecin Poland

Department of Zoology and Landscaping University of Science and Technology Ks A Kordeckiego 20 PL 85 225 Bydgoszcz Poland

Department of Zoology University of Rzeszów Zelwerowicza 4 PL 35 601 Rzeszów Poland

Institute of Nature Conservation Polish Academy of Sciences Mickiewicza 33 PL 31 120 Kraków Poland

Institute of Zoology Poznań University of Life Sciences Wojska Polskiego 71C PL 60 625 Poznań Poland

Laboratoire d'Ecologie Systématique et Evolution CNRS UMR 8079 Université Paris Sud Bâtiment 362 F 91405 Orsay Cedex France

Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities Faculty of Natural Science Department of Zoology Prusa 12 08 110 Siedlce Poland

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Urbanization affects neophilia and risk-taking at bird-feeders