Birds used in research — including pigeons, starlings, chickens, and zebra finches — have specific welfare needs related to social housing, perching, and behavioral expression that are often inadequately addressed in laboratory settings.
Bird welfare in laboratory settings has historically received less attention than mammalian welfare, partly because regulatory frameworks in many countries provide less protection to birds than to mammals. This is a welfare gap — birds have complex social structures, cognitive abilities, and behavioral needs that poorly designed laboratory housing systematically fails to meet. Food restriction to 80-85% of free-feeding body weight, commonly used in operant conditioning studies, maintains chronic mild hunger as a motivational state. Refinement advances including intermittent reinforcement schedules that reduce food restriction, social housing designs that allow choice, and enrichment provision have been shown to maintain experimental validity while improving welfare significantly.