| Summary: | Largely due to the small number of individuals in captivity, birds of prey remain an understudied, but promising, group for animal cognition research. Variations on the classic string-pulling task have been applied across species to evaluate abilities such as associative learning, means-end understanding, and insight problem solving. Previous research has examined only a few species of raptor on the task such as the Harris’s hawk, great grey owl, and turkey vulture. Here, we explored how 1-3 individuals from each of seven raptor species (turkey vulture, Cathartes aura barn owl, Tyto alba western screech owl, Megascops kennicottii eastern screech owl, Megascops asio red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis Swainson’s hawk, Buteo swainsoni and Harris’s hawk, Parabuteo unicinctus ) responded to a standardized vertical apparatus. Our goal was to replicate, diversify, and extend the literature by documenting how these different species approached the same problem. Two strings were tied around a perch, one of which was baited. Birds underwent multiple 60-min trials. At least one bird from four of the seven species retrieved the food reward. Three individuals retrieved the food consistently across trials, including the first recorded solving by a western screech owl. Birds displayed diverse apparatus-directed behaviors and solving methods which supported our predictions regarding sociality and predation method. We frame our findings as a roadmap for future researchers studying physical problem-solving by raptors.
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