Neophobia, or aversion to novelty, is important for adaptability and survival as it influences the ways in which animals navigate risk and interact with their environments. Across individuals, species and other taxonomic levels, neophobia is known to vary considerably, but our understanding of the wider ecological drivers of neophobia is hampered by a lack of comparative multispecies studies using standardized methods. Here, we utilized the ManyBirds Project, a Big Team Science large-scale collaborative open science framework, to pool efforts and resources of 129 collaborators at 77 institutions from 24 countries worldwide across six continents. We examined both difference scores (between novel object test and control conditions) and raw data of latency to touch familiar food in the presence (test) and absence (control) of a novel object among 1,439 subjects from 136 bird species across 25 taxonomic orders incorporating lab, field, and zoo sites. We first demonstrated that consistent differences in neophobia existed among individuals, among species, and among other taxonomic levels in our dataset, rejecting the null hypothesis that neophobia is highly plastic at all taxonomic levels with no evidence for evolutionary divergence. We then tested for effects of ecological factors on neophobia, including diet, sociality, habitat, and range, while accounting for phylogeny. We found that (i) species with more specialist diets were more neophobic than those with more generalist diets, providing support for the Neophobia Threshold Hypothesis; (ii) migratory species were also more neophobic than nonmigratory species, which supports the Dangerous Niche Hypothesis. Our study shows that the evolution of avian neophobia has been shaped by ecological drivers and demonstrates the potential of Big Team Science to advance our understanding of animal behavior.

Acoustics Research Institute Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna Austria

Animal Behaviour and Cognition Group Department of Biology Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands

Animal Physiology Institute of Neurobiology University of Tuebingen Tuebingen Germany

Antwerp Zoo Centre for Research and Conservation Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium

Avifauna Bird Park Alphen a d Rijn The Netherlands

Biology Department Pacific University Forest Grove Oregon United States of America

BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics Biodiversity and Land Planning Vairão Portugal

Biosciences Institute Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne United Kingdom

CEFE Univ Montpellier CNRS EPHE IRD Montpellier France

Centre for Research on Ecology Cognition and Behaviour of Birds Ghent University Gent Belgium

Centro de Investigación Mariña Universidade de Vigo Vigo Spain

CIBIO Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos InBIO Laboratório Associado Universidade do Porto Vairão Portugal

College of Science and Engineering Flinders University Adelaide Australia

CONICET Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina

Departamento de Conservación e Investigación Fundación Temaikèn Buenos Aires Argentina

Departamento de Ecología Genética y Evolución and IEGEBA CONICET Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina

Department of Animal Behaviour Bielefeld University Bielefeld Germany

Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics University of Giessen Giessen Germany

Department of Animal Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology Wageningen The Netherlands

Department of Animal Physiology Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Nigeria

Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Department of Behavioural Neurobiology Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence Seewiesen Germany

Department of Biological Sciences Hokkaido University Sapporo Japan

Department of Biological Sciences Louisiana State University Baton Rouge Louisiana United States of America

Department of Biology Antwerp University Antwerp Belgium

Department of Biology Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana Pennsylvania United States of America

Department of Biology Lafayette College Easton Pennsylvania United States of America

Department of Biology Lund University Lund Sweden

Department of Biology Pittsburg State University Pittsburg Kansas United States of America

Department of Biology Western Washington University Bellingham Washington United States of America

Department of Biopsychology Ruhr University Bochum Bochum Germany

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences University of Rochester Rochester New York United States of America

Department of Cell Biology Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany

Department of Cognitive Science Lund University Lund Sweden

Department of Comparative Cognition University of Neuchâtel Neuchâtel Switzerland

Department of Comparative Language Science University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Department of Crop and Animal Sciences Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Berlin Germany

Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Lausanne Lausanne Switzerland

Department of Experimental Psychology Ghent University Gent Belgium

Department of Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Vienna Austria

Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of General Zoology University of Duisburg Essen Essen Germany

Department of Philosophy University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Department of Psychology and Counseling Pittsburg State University Pittsburg Kansas United States of America

Department of Psychology National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore

Department of Psychology University of Alberta Alberta Canada

Department of Psychology University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom

Department of Psychology University of York York United Kingdom

Department of Zoology University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic

Environmental Research Institute University College Cork Cork Ireland

Faculté des Sciences et Ingénierie Sorbonne Université Paris France

Faculté des Sciences Université Paris Saclay Gif sur Yvette France

Faculty of Environment Science and Economy University of Exeter Exeter United Kingdom

ICREA Barcelona Spain

Institut de Neurociències Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Bellaterra Barcelona Spain

Institut des Neurosciences Paris Saclay CNRS Université Paris Saclay Saclay France

Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse University of Toulouse 1 Capitole Toulouse France

Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics Centre of Biosciences SAS Bratislava Slovak Republic

Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde Universidade Federal de Alagoas Maceió Alagoas Brazil

Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras CONICET Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata Buenos Aires Argentina

Lab of Animal Behavior and Conservation School of Life Sciences Nanjing University Nanjing China

Mandai Wildlife Group Singapore Singapore

Max Planck Comparative Cognition Research Station Loro Parque Fundación Tenerife Spain

Messerli Research Institute Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna University of Vienna Medical University of Vienna Austria

Raptor Center and Wildlife Zoo Hellenthal Hellenthal Germany

School of Biodiversity One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow Glasgow United Kingdom

School of Biological and Environmental Sciences Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool United Kingdom

School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University College Cork Cork Ireland

School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol United Kingdom

School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand

School of Biological Sciences University of Western Australia Perth Australia

School of Life Sciences Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge United Kingdom

School of Natural Sciences University of Lincoln Lincoln United Kingdom

School of Psychology and Social Work University of Hull Hull United Kingdom

The Sense Innovation and Research Centre Lausanne and Sion Lausanne Switzerland

UMR6552 Ethologie Animale et Humaine CNRS Universite de Rennes Universite Caen Normandie Rennes France

Zagreb Zoo Zagreb Croatia

Zoo Frankfurt Frankfurt Germany

Zoo Krefeld gGmbH Krefeld Germany

Zoo Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany

Zoological Research Museum Koenig University of Bonn Bonn Germany

Zoomarine Italia Rome Italy

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