Everybody has an email address these days, and it’s been a while now since electronic mail superseded conventional letters or snail mails and facsimiles. Furthermore, the increased use of email in various business affairs has also resulted in the development of particular idiosyncratic patterns of emailing behaviour. To understand the meaning behind all this, researchers at the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Scotland have examined these different behaviours and cleverly matched them to guess what – typical bird-like behaviours!

Dr Karen Renaud, senior lecturer in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, said in an article published on the University website, “Email has rapidly become a vital business communication tool and a lot of people we spoke to say they would not be able to do their jobs without it”.

“However, many people have gripes about email. Some people find themselves checking email all the time, even during evenings, weekends and holidays, others complain about how other people behave when using email. When we analysed all the findings, we realised we could categorise email behaviours and match them to the characteristics of some well-known birds”, Dr Renaud explained.

A total of 15 bird-like characteristics of email users have been identified, and they are:

1. Compulsive Woodpecker: Can’t resist reading email at all hours of the day and night!
2. Hibernating Poorwill: Reads email only occasionally so that senders can never rely on them.
3. Caterwauling Peacock: Broadcasts email to all, claims that people “need to know” when actually is just grandstanding.
4. Back-Covering Emu: Sends emails in order to be able to prove, at a later date, that the information was passed on.
5. Echoing Mynah: Acknowledges all emails. Often engages in exchange like “thanks”, then “my please”, then “thanks again”.
6. Boorish Parrot: Sends abusive or inappropriate emails and fails to understand why others get upset by them.
7. Night Owl: The midnight emailer, need we say more?
8. Incommunicado Ostrich: Reads emails but doesn’t reply. Often good friends with the Hibernating Poorwill.
9. Pesky Crow: “Leans” on others by means of emails, sending multiple versions of the same document or about the same topic.
10. Echolalia Mockingbird: A serial forwarder, sending chain emails, and online petitions. Most of these emails have a subject line starting with “FW”.
11. Hoarding Magpie: Keeps hundreds of emails in the inbox and can never find what they are looking for.
12. Lightning-Response Hummingbird: Responds immediately to email, and expects an immediate response in return.
13. Buck-Passing Cuckoo: Sends emails to others asking them to carry out some task he/she should do himself/herself, and then leaves quickly; mimics the Incommunicado Ostrich so that the recipient is left carrying the baby.
14. Camouflaging Woodcock: Use blind copy to send copies of emails to other recipients without the main recipient’s knowledge.
15. Popular Robin: A favourite amongst all the birds, a Robin simply does not allow email to dictate. They take the time to speak to people whenever possible and do not let email to take over their lives.

So tell us, are you a Peacock or a popular Robin? What about your friends? Can you identify some of your friends in the list?  ‘Share’ this interesting article and since it’s bird-related, remember to ‘Tweet’ about it too!

Dr Renaud also mentioned that what the research really highlights is that email is a great source of stress for many people. Too often, email is use instead of a more suitable means of communication like actually talking to someone. What do you think?

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