How To: Train birds with B.F. Skinner's shaping methods

This is footage from B.F. Skinner's psychological tests on shaping behavior.

The differential reinforcement of successive approximations, or more commonly, shaping is a conditioning procedure used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior. It was introduced by B.F. Skinner [1] with pigeons and extended to dogs, dolphins, humans and other species. In shaping, the form of an existing response is gradually changed across successive trials towards a desired target behavior using differential reinforcement. The principles of shaping are present in everyday interactions with the environment. Also, in the case of a human employing shaping to change another organism's behavior, this procedure is used when giving instructions (such as "touch the bar for food") is impossible due to the absence of language or communication between the two.