Extinction in Free‐Ranging <i>Aves</i> in Competition with <i>Sciurus carolinensis</i>

The author set up two backyard bird feeders. One feeder gave seeds only when no squirrels were near. The other feeder gave seeds no matter what. A camera recorded every visit for eight weeks.

Wild birds and gray squirrels used the feeders. The study used an ABAB design. In A phases both feeders worked. In B phases only the squirrel-free feeder worked. The setup cost about $150.

Bird visits to the squirrel-free feeder stayed high. Visits to the always-open feeder dropped fast when it stopped paying off. When the payoff returned, birds came back quickly. The pattern repeated in every reversal.

Different bird species learned different tactics. Cardinals waited on nearby branches. Finches tried hovering. Sparrows formed loose flocks. Each group found its own new way to get food.

Cengher et al. (2020) showed the same thing in teenagers with autism. When one-word mands stopped working, kids tried longer phrases. Cox (2025) shows the process works in wild birds too. Extinction pushes any learner to try new forms.

Morse et al. (1966) and Harrison et al. (1975) warned that extinction can spark aggression. Cox saw no fights. The difference is density. Lab pigeons got food every few seconds. Backyard birds visit a few times per hour. Lean schedules keep tempers cool.

Takashima et al. (1994) used extinction to make toy play more creative. Kids tried new actions when old ones failed. Birds did the same. Across species, extinction plus reinforcement for novel forms builds flexible behavior.

You can run low-cost extinction demos outside your clinic. Show staff and parents how behavior shifts when reinforcement stops. Use the footage to explain why we withhold reinforcement for problem behavior and reinforce new communicative forms. The birds make the process visible and memorable.