Being a ‘Bird Brain’ May Not Be An Insult

Our feathered friends were always judged by the size of their brains. The mammal way is simple, the larger the brain, the smarter the animal. However with the aviary research over the years, it’s possible to say that the same is not true for birds. Even with their small sized brains, the researchers have been able to come up with a number of instances, where the intelligence shines through.

For instance a Goffin’s Cockatoo taught himself how to cut a piece of cardboard and make it into a tool. A northern Goshawk can assess the density of the trees and intuit how fast they can fly ensuring that they don’t crash into anything in the forest but clear all the openings. Black crows actually know how to wait for the traffic light to turn red before they scoop down on the food that may have fallen onto the road from passing vehicles.

In an experiment conducted in New Zealand, Keas Alpine Parrots figured out that they needed to work together to get the treats inside a wooden tower. The mechanism required two chains on opposite sides of the tower to be pulled simultaneously. A fact that was once demonstrated by the human handler and eventually the parrots in the science project managed to learn how to do the deed as a team.