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PAGE  PAGE 2 Study species Woodpecker finches, with a weight of about 20g, have an elongated but powerful beak that is suitable for probing moss patches and pecking into wood and under bark to gain access to their prey. This species uses twigs or cactus spines to extract arthropods from under bark and in tree holes but shows this behaviour mainly in dry areas near the coast. Both species have a diverse food spectrum with a similar diversity of food types and foraging substrates  ADDIN EN.CITE  ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Tebbich et al. 2004). Woodpecker finches mainly feed on larvae of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera, but also in high amounts on adult insects and caterpillars. A smaller percentage of their diet consists of fruit, nectar and spiders Small tree finches, with a weight of about 13g, have grasping beaks with convex curvature of both culmen and gonys. They also rely heavily on Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and other insects, but they rely more strongly than woodpecker finches on fruit and nectar and additionally, they feed on seeds. These birds mainly pick prey off the surface of leaves attached to a tree but also forage to a lesser extent in moss and under bark  ADDIN EN.CITE  ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Tebbich et al. 2004). Housing and General procedure Birds were held in individual habituation aviaries (0.5 x 0.5 x 1.0m) during their first three to five days post-capture, until they were familiar with feeding and drinking from the provided dishes. Then all birds were transferred to the outdoor aviaries. Eight woodpecker finches were held in long-term captivity for breeding purposes, related to a conservation project. These birds were tested in the classical reversal experiment mentioned in the introduction, an operant task and two physical learning tasks (Tebbich et al 2010, Teschke et al 2011) between the experiments that tested reaction to novelty and the reversal experiments of this study. All tests were conducted in the birds home aviaries with the exp