Data and code for: Behavioral plasticity shapes participation in a mixed-species flocking community of birds

Behavioral plasticity can modulate the costs and benefits of sociality, and thus may play a prominent role in mediating competition and facilitation during social interactions in mixed-species groups. However, investigations of assembly patterns of mixed-species groups typically treat species’ behavioral attributes as static rather than dynamic features that can change in social contexts. We investigate four axes of behavioral plasticity that may modulate interaction within mixed-species groups: 1) species’ selective preference for joining certain groups, 2) species’ ability to flexibly change their behavior in response to groupmates’ behavior, and 3) shifts and/or 4) expansions of species’ niche occupancy when foraging with conspecifics versus when foraging with heterospecifics. We assess variation in these axes of behavioral plasticity in an Australian mixed-species avian community. All species had selective preferences for flocks of certain strata, and some flexibly matched their flo..., We collected this data in an approximately 1000 ha study site within Brookfield Conservation Park in the lower Murray-Darling River Basin in South Australia. Flock observations occurred from August 2019 to December 2019, just before the beginning of the austral spring and bird breeding season, continuing through the end of the breeding season when most species had fledged young. Here we discuss only mixed-species foraging flocks, which we define as groups that contain two or more species and that actively move in a coordinated fashion while foraging. During the study period, we opportunistically observed foraging flocks throughout the day (beginning at dawn and ending before dusk) to determine species composition and foraging behavior of flock members. In total, we recorded 445 mixed-species foraging flocks, formed of a combination of 38 species. Only flocks that were observed that were not categorized as \"foraging flocks\" were excluded from this data. Any other necessary data parsing i..., , # Data and code for: Behavioral plasticity shapes participation in a mixed-species flocking community of birds

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0k6djhb7h](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0k6djhb7h)

We investigate four axes of behavioral plasticity that may modulate interaction within mixed-species groups: 1) species’ selective preference for joining certain groups, 2) species’ ability to flexibly change their behavior in response to groupmates’ behavior, and 3) shifts and/or 4) expansions of species’ niche occupancy when foraging with conspecifics versus when foraging with heterospecifics. We assess variation in these axes of behavioral plasticity in an Australian mixed-species avian community. Here are the two data sets and the associated code to reproduce the results found in the above manuscript.

## Description of the data and file structure

Contains 4 files, here are listed the file names and the contents:

1. **Dryad_FlexibilitySelectivity_Dryad_Version_20230902.Rmd**
-This fi...