The Science of Birds - Bird Intelligence

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

Our understanding of bird brains and intelligence has grown tremendously in the last couple decades.Thanks to countless scientific studies, we now know that many bird species are highly intelligent. Some of them perform better than primates, dogs, and young children on certain cognitive tests.In this episode, we look at how intelligence is defined and some evidence for it in birds. We have a look at the avian brain and consider how intelligence evolved in birds.Which birds are the smartest? Which birds are numbskulls? Have a listen and find out!~~ Leave me a review using Podchaser ~~Links of InterestBook: The Genius of BirdsBook: Bird BrainNew Caledonian Crow Video 1New Caledonian Crow Video 2Kea VideoLink to this episode on the Science of Birds websiteSupport the show

If you're like me, you're pretty sure the earth is round. Well, it's a sphere anyway. But as you know, some people, amazingly, still think our world is flat. As moderately intelligent apes, we humans have the cognitive ability to put ourselves in the shoes of other people, mentally. We understand that not everyone shares our own beliefs and feelings. You and I understand that flat earthers have a false belief about how the world works. They think they're right, of course, but we know they're just flat out wrong. This same cognitive ability allows me to grasp the concept that some people aren't all that interested in birds. Crazy, right? But it's true. Likewise, I can understand that there are at least a few people on the planet who actually enjoy the flavor of black

licorish. This ability is part of what we call theory of mind. It's a skill that allows us humans to think about mental states, our own mental states and those of others. We try to guess someone's thoughts or gauge their emotional state or consider their needs. We never really know what's going on in the mind of another person, of course, but we can have a theory about what they're thinking. That's why this is called theory of mind. So humans are pretty good at thinking about the mental states of others. But what about birds? Well, consider the green bee eater, Mirops, Orientalis. This lovely tropical bird lives in dry woodlands across India, Southeast Asia, and scattered locations in the Middle East and Africa.

The green bee eater is indeed mostly green, with an orangey or yellow crown, a black eye mask, and pale blue cheeks. Its black bill is long, pointy, and gently downward curving. Bee eaters, the 30 or so species in the family, myropody, aren't birds we usually single out as being especially intelligent. But some interesting research suggests the green bee eater may use its own theory of mind. In one study, researchers in India studied green bee eaters in the field to test this particular cognitive ability. They wanted to see how the birds react when they're being watched near the nest. Bee eaters dig nest burrows into vertical or sloping earth banks.

When a green bee eater is returning to its burrow with food for its chicks, it first perches a short distance from the entrance. It looks around warily while holding a wasp or other prey insect in its bill. If the bird knows it's being watched by a potential predator, it won't enter the nest. It doesn't want to endanger itself or its family. The researchers in this study counted the number of times returning bee-eaters entered their nests under each of two experimental conditions. The first condition was when a researcher sat within three to ten meters of the nest

in full view of the perching bee-eater and the nest entrance. The second condition was when a researcher sat just as close and where they could see the perching bird, but some physical barrier prevented the researcher from seeing the nest entrance, a barrier like a bush or a boulder. One assumption here is that humans are among the critters that these bee-eaters consider bad news, possible nest predators. It turned out that the birds entered their nests significantly more often under the condition where the watching researcher could not see the nest entrance, because of the intervening barrier. Why is this an interesting result? Why is this cool? Well, one of the best explanations for what's happening here is that a greener bee-eater can basically put itself in the shoes of the researcher. A bee-eater can imagine what the

lurking researcher can see from the researcher's perspective. If a bee-eater thinks that this seemingly ill-intentioned human can't see the nest entrance, the bird feels more at ease to go ahead and enter the burrow. This is cool because it suggests that these birds have some version of a theory of mind. In a second experiment in the same published study, the nest watching researchers found that if they just looked away from the nest, like, oh, don't mind me, I'm just looking at the pretty clouds over there. I'm definitely not interested in your nest. When the researchers looked away like this, the birds entered their nests more often. So this second experiment suggests that the bee-eaters understand that the direction of a predator's gaze is a

important. Maybe this seems trivial. I mean, for humans, it's no big deal, right? But such mental abilities have been found in only a handful of animal species. Scientists still don't know whether green bee eaters think the world is round or if they think it's flat. Further study is needed there. But we do know that these birds show some sophisticated mental abilities that scientists This once thought were found in only humans and maybe some of our close relatives. It turns out that humans aren't always as special as we think we are. And it turns out that birds are, in general, pretty dang smart. Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted, guided exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners. Today, we're delving into the minds and brains of birds. We're looking at their intelligence. This is a fascinating topic and a big one. Entire books have been written about the intelligence of birds. So this episode is, of course, just an overview.

Are you ready? Let's go. First things first. What is intelligence? How do we define it? Sure, we all have an intuitive, gut-level sense of what the word intelligence means. I mean, it's obvious that you are exceptionally intelligent, given that you're listening to this podcast. And I like to think that I have something approaching average intelligence. But for thousands of years, scholars and scientists have been coming up with competing technical

definitions for intelligence. And yet, we still don't have a single concise definition that we all agree on. Using a modern simple definition, we say that intelligence is the ability to gain and apply knowledge and skills. Intelligence is closely related to what we call cognition. Cognition is, according to the old dictionary, the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. So, intelligence is an ability, while cognition is a process. I've also heard it put this way. Cognition is what the brain does.

It's an action. Intelligence is the power available for this action. It's a capacity for action. I hope this makes some sense. I don't want to go round and round with these definitions. But let's just say that scientists know quite a lot about intelligence and cognition in humans. Especially in the last couple decades, tremendous leaps of scientific progress have given us deep insight

into the genetic, molecular, cellular, and anatomical bases for the brain power of our own species. Even so, there are still many mysteries to solve around the subject of human cognition. So what about intelligence and cognition in animals? Actually, I should say non-human animals, right? Well, we know a lot less about the mental processes of other critters, the non-human animals, including birds. There are multiple reasons why our understanding of how other species think and feel lags far behind, what we know about the human mind.

First off, many scholars and laypeople throughout history wouldn't even consider the possibility that non-human animals possess intelligence or emotions. For them, the idea of animals being smart and capable of independent thought was a non-starter. Because humans are special! Or so we once thought, we thought we were the only beings on earth

with bona fide intelligence, the only ones with souls and all of that. And don't you dare suggest that humans are animals? That's preposterous. But even back in the day, there were some forward-thinking people that gave animals more credit than that. Mark Twain, for example, said,

quote, it is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. End quote. Another reason we know less about animal intelligence is that we can't just ask them what they're thinking. Well, I guess we can ask, but good luck getting an answer. Because except for a few rare exceptions, non-human animals aren't capable of using language to communicate with the researchers who study them.

I mean, if you ask a house sparrow to complete the sentence, book is to reading as fork is to blank. You'll get only a blank stare in return, or at best a few quizzical head movements and some chirping. Not so helpful for trying to test the sparrow's IQ. A third major limitation is that some super smart animals are just on a different wavelength. I mean, there isn't just one way to be intelligent on our planet. To meet the challenges of life on Earth, several very distantly related animal lineages have evolved brains capable of high intelligence. We know that primates, whales,

dogs, pigs, elephants, birds, and octopuses are all pretty clever beasts. But intelligence has evolved independently among these groups, for the most part anyway. So the brain hardware and genetic software of mammals, birds, and cephalopods are in many ways wildly different. It's tricky enough to gauge the intellects of

apes and monkeys, our close relatives. But birds may think so differently from us that we won't ever fully understand how their minds work. They may be, in some ways, fundamentally inscrutable. But at least birds aren't as far out as octopuses. Those crazy eight-legged mollusks might as well be aliens from another planet. So the study of bird cognition is complicated by a language barrier and a potential difference between the flavors of intelligence between humans and birds. Despite these major challenges, biologists haven't just thrown their hands up and moved on to solving other mysteries. Instead, there's been a lot of research on bird intelligence in the last two decades and many exciting discoveries.

Now let's consider some evidence for the brain. brainpower of birds. Countless scientific studies have found evidence for intelligence among birds. But I should point out that the thing we call quote unquote intelligence isn't really just one thing. It has several facets or components. These include an understanding of cause and effect, behavioral flexibility, imagination, the ability to anticipate future events, and that whole theory of mind thing we talked about in the intro. Birds, at least some of them, have demonstrated each of these. We can also say that these components of intelligence and a handful of others make up an animal's cognitive toolkit. Other tools that some birds have in their kit include

an understanding of object permanence, the ability to delay their gratification, self-recognition in a mirror, the ability to count objects and vocal learning. A few bird species also appear to have an awareness of their own thought processes, which is an ability we call metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Like when I remember that god-awful haircut I had back in 1987, and I think to myself, what was I thinking?

Why did I get a mullet? so these are a bunch of cognitive tools that have been observed among our avian friends causal reasoning imagination self-recognition and so on all are pretty impressive abilities because as far as we know very few non-human animals have them keep in mind though that some birds are a few tools short of a toolbox if you catch my drift. I mean, not all birds display every one of the mental abilities we're talking about. That's because smarts are not evenly distributed among the 250 or so bird families of the world, or among the almost 11,000 species. A few families and species are clearly brainier than others.

You got your handful of smarty-pants species. You got some other species that get wasted at the occasional frat party, but still maintain a respectable 3.0 GPA, and then you got your birds that are, at least by comparison, numb skulls. Such variation in intelligence among birds shouldn't be surprising. We mammals also show a wide variety of mental aptitudes across species. Armadillos, naked mole rats, orangutans, koalas, and fruit bats show different levels of proficiency with the various tools in the cognitive toolkit. There isn't enough time in a podcast episode to properly review the multitudes of published studies on bird intelligence. That's not what we're doing here today. But let's consider

a few studies as fun examples. The first study has to do with birds using tools, as in actual physical tools, in addition to the metaphorical tools we've been talking about. The birds are New Caledonian crows, Corvus Monegoloides. These glossy black birds are members of the family Corvody, and they live only on the islands of New Caledonia, about 800 miles northeast of Australia. The New Caledonian crow is sometimes referred to as the smartest bird in the world. The big claim to fame for these birds is that they make and use tools in the wild. They use short twigs to probe for insects.

More impressively, they cut out small sections of pandanus leaves to make a hooked tool for extracting grubs from crevices. You might have seen documentary footage of these birds demonstrating their impressive skills. There's a lot to say about this species, and maybe I'll do an entire episode on it at some point. For now, let's consider just this one study, published in 2007 in the journal Current Biology. The researchers were a group from the Department of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

They tested New Caledonian crows in the lab to see if the birds could accomplish a task by using one tool to access a second tool. In the experimental setup, the task is getting a small piece of meat out of a hole. The hole is too deep for the crow to reach with its beak. Sitting 1.75 meters away from the hole are a couple of small cages. In one cage there is a stick that is long enough to reach the meat. In the other cage is a small rock. Sitting in front of the cages, out in the open, is a short stick.

Importantly, the short stick isn't long enough to reach the meat. Now, the crow really wants that nugget of food. It has to figure out how to use the objects in its environment to get that tasty meat. into its little bird belly. The only way to do that is to, one, pick up the short stick. Two, use the short stick to get the long stick out of the cage. Three, use the long stick to extract the meat from the hole. And, four, scarf the meat down as fast as possible, taking no time whatsoever to

savor the taste. The researchers tested seven crows. They had cute names like Luigi, Gypsy, and Ruby. These birds had never been tested this way before, so they were naive to the task of using one tool to get another tool. Despite their inexperience, all seven crows figured out the correct sequence to get the food. Most impressively, three of them solved the puzzle on the first trial. Gypsy took all of 22 seconds to extract the meat morsel.

Clever girl. None of the birds tried to get the rock out. of its cage. The rock would be useless and none of the birds fell for it. Because the crows didn't go for the rock and because they solved the puzzle quickly, we can say that they didn't succeed by mere trial and error. They didn't stumble into the right sequence only after repeated failures. The new Caledonian crows in this experiment and other similar experiments were clearly planning ahead. The birds use reason to plan several steps in advance. like chess players thinking two moves ahead.

They have to use their imaginations. Only humans and a few great apes like gorillas show such skill. I'll put a couple links in the show notes to videos of new Caledonian crows going through these trials. These guys make most other animals look like complete idiots. The second study has to do with parrots and probability.

Wasn't that a Jane Austen novel or something? parrots and probability. The parrot in this case is the Kia of New Zealand, which has the scientific name Nestor Notabilis. This largeish green bird is famous for its smarts and for its mischievous behavior. The two go hand in hand, of course. The study was published in Nature Communications in 20. The researchers are part of that same group from the University of Auckland.

In an aviary setting, six young Kia were taught that they could trade black wooden pegs for food. Then, in the actual experiment, two transparent jars were filled with both black pegs and orange pegs. So each jar has a mixture of black and orange pegs. While a Kia watches attentively, a researcher grabs a random pegged. from each jar, simultaneously. So there's one peg in each hand. The Kia can't see the peg in the researcher's closed fists. The bird then chooses one hand to get a peg as a token.

If the peg is black, happy day for the Kia. It gets a nugget of pre-moistened dog food. Yum. But here's the thing. One jar has a higher proportion of black pegs. A random draw from that jar is much more likely to use. yield one of the rewarding black tokens. Amazingly, the six Kia almost always chose the hand that had reached into the jar with a

greater proportion of black pigs. So this study, which, remember, was published in 2020, gives us the first evidence that birds can use probability to make decisions about the future. As far as we know, the only other animals who can do this are humans and other great apes. Check out the show notes for a link to a video about these experiments. These birds are pretty smart cookies. And speaking of cookies, the third study I want to talk about has to do with self-control. Self-control.

The thing I lack entirely when it comes to regulating how many cookies to eat. If my wife bakes a big batch of cookies and leaves them on the kitchen counter to cool, well, let's just say that when she comes back, all she's likely to find are a few crumbs on the counter, and me passed out on the couch with incriminating chocolate smeared on my face. Self-control and an ability to delay gratification are signs of higher intelligence. So what does that say about me? Anyway, in this study, a small songbird species was tested on its ability to show some measure of self-control.

The study was conducted by biologists at Lund, University in Sweden. It was published in 2018 in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The experiment involved wild-caught Great Tits, Paris Major. This is a common species across Europe. It's a member of the Parody family, which includes chickadees. The Great Tit is an endearing little bird with a blackhead and yellowish body. It has large white cheek patches and gray wings. To summarize the experiment in simple terms, the researchers presented each of 33 tits with a clear plastic tube. The tube was open

on either side. In the middle of the tube, there was a tantalizing treat, a mealworm. The tube's diameter was large enough for a tit to reach the mealworm from either of the open ends. If upon seeing the millworm in the tube, the bird went right for it and pecked at the tube, that was an immediate fail. Like me wolfing down a pile of cookies, the bird in this case showed zero self-control. But if a tit moved to the side of the tube and reached in to get the treat, that was considered a success. The bird had resisted its basic instinct to just lunge. impulsively at the food. This simple test with a transparent tube has been given to other bird species as well as primates, dogs, and other mammals. Great apes and ravens do really well. Dogs are

pretty good too, but other birds and mammals, eh, not so much. So how did our great tits do in this study? Over multiple trials for each bird, the average success rate was 80%. That's almost as good as some crows and jays and chimpanzees. Despite their relatively tiny brains, these tits performed almost as well as other birds that we more often think of as extra smart. I wanted to include this example to show you that intelligence among birds isn't reserved for only parrots and members of the crow family. There are tons of other studies I could tell you about, but time is money, so we better

move on here. Let's take a look now at the avian brain. Once upon a time, you could insult someone by calling them a bird brain. By that, you'd be calling the person stupid. I suppose people still use bird brain this way, but it seems like an old timey phrase to me. People used to think all birds are unintelligent creatures that run. on pure instinct. One reason for this mistaken belief

is that research in the late 19th century on the brains of birds got a few things wrong. You see, the structure of a bird's brain has some major differences from the brains of humans and other mammals. In mammals, the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain involved

in complex cognitive functions. Some of the more, quote-unquote, primitive functions, instincts and reflexes, are associated with another part of a mammal's brain, the striatum. Looking at the anatomy of the bird brain, biologists in the 1800s thought that the bulk of the avian forebrain was more like the primitive mammalian striatum

rather than the mammalian cortex. So their conclusion was that birds operate largely on instinct, like simple-minded automaton's. In other words, birds are a bunch of dumb-dums. Because of this misunderstanding, some parts of the bird brain were, unfortunately, assigned names that reflected their perceived primitiveness. But after decades of additional study, researchers finally realized this way of looking at the avian brain is incorrect. A bird's forebrain, the hyperpalium, is actually much more like the mammalian cortex, at least in terms of its function and in terms of its evolutionary orid. The hyperpalium is the center of learning and intelligence in birds.

To fix the problem with the misleading labels for various parts of the bird brain, a group of 29 specialists in bird, fish, reptile, and mammalian brains got together at Duke University in 2002. I imagine they had some raging parties after their daily meetings. Wouldn't it be ironic if those brain researchers killed some of their own brain cells by chugging too much beer during the evening social events? Actually, I just looked this up. Heavy drinking doesn't really kill brain cells. They can do some damage, but, well, you get the joke anyway, right?

A few years later, this rag-tag, rowdy group of scientists published their conclusions and offered a new system of nomenclature, a better way of labeling the avian brain. This was an important step on the way to appreciating the cognitive powers of birds. and the new naming system helps researchers studying birds communicate more effectively with those who study mammal brains. So bird brains are just as sophisticated as those of mammals, and they allow for some highly complex thinking.

Sure, the overall architecture of the avian brain has some fundamental differences from that of the mammalian brain, but at the cellular level, the level of neurons and neurotransmitters, there's a lot of similarity. One analogy offered to describe the differences between mammal and bird brains is that they're like PCs and Apple computers, respectively. They both do the same things, more or less, but the underlying hardware and software are different.

Or to use an analogy that kids these days can understand, bird brains and mammal brains are like iPhones and Android phones. Or they're like Nintendo and PlayStation. Or Chipotle and Taco Bell, I don't know, take your pick. The hippocampus is an important part of the vertebrate brain. It has multiple functions, including some related to memory. So, if a bird's brain is like Taco Bell, the hippocampus is like a seven-layer burrito or something.

Does that make sense? Is this analogy working for anyone? No. Anyway, some birds have extraordinary spatial memories, and these are associated with their oversized pulsating hippocampuses, or, I should say, hippocampi. Birds with the best spatial memories are species that cache seeds. Nut hatches, parrids, those chickadees and tits,

and some members of the crow family are famous seed-cashing birds. The trophy for the best spatial memory in birds probably should go to Clark's Nutcracker, Nusufrega, Columbiana. This species is in the crow family, Corvody. It lives in the high mountains of, Western North America. I associate the strident calls of these birds with wind-swept peaks and gnarled old pines

just below Timberline. I love hiking in the mountains, so I love the sound of Clark's Nutcracker. Plus, I just think they're super cool birds. A Clark's Nutcracker stashes the fatty seeds of pines in nooks and crannies all over the place in its alpine habitat. When food is scarce in winter, the bird has a supply of seeds to live on. In one season, a single nutcracker might cash up to 98,000 seeds in more than 2,000 locations. And the amazing thing is that the bird can, at least potentially, remember all of its cash sites for up to nine months.

Could you do that? I sure couldn't. This is an example of a bird with one cognitive ability that surpasses, our own. How about the sizes of bird brains? Most birds are pretty small animals, so it's no surprise that their brains are also small. But intelligence may be more strongly correlated with relative brain size rather than absolute brain size. A bird's brain is between 2 and 9% of its total body mass, depending on the species you're looking at. This is similar to the ratio seen in most mammals. But if you compare the brains of a bird and a reptile, like a lizard, of equal size, the bird's brain is six to eleven times larger than the lizard's brain. It turns out

that lizards aren't too bright. You got to love them, though. Their brains may be relatively simple, but that's just fine. You do you, lizards. Another interesting fact here about birds is that even when you have a bird with cognitive skills rivaling those of a primate, the absolute size of the bird's brain is smaller. In other words, a bird can use its smaller brain to perform cognitive tasks just as well as a primate with its larger brain. This might be explained by some recent research which revealed that, compared to primates, bird brains are packed more densely with brain cells, with neurons.

And some bird brains have more neurons than the much larger brains of primates. So, ounce for ounce, bird brains pack more punch when it comes to cognition. And get this, the actual neurons in bird brains are smaller than those of mammals. Why should birds have smaller neurons, but lots of them packed into a small space? With this arrangement, a bird's brain is simultaneously lightweight and tuned for high performance. A reasonable hypothesis is that this is an evolutionary adaptation for flight. A bird needs a supercharged brain to fly, but it can't afford to have a big fat brain dragging it down. Lean and mean is the way to go.

It makes me happy to see how scientists have helped us better understand the structure of bird brains. This in turn helps us appreciate how smart these creatures really are. Better late than never, I guess. So the next time someone calls me birdbrain, I'll say, I can only assume that you are suggesting that my cognitive prowess is much like that of the esteemed and intellectually gifted crow of New Caledonia. You are too kind, and I thank you for the flattery. Birds and mammals share a common ancestor way, way back, before their was ever such a thing as a dinosaur. These two groups split about 315 million years ago.

Ever since then, their brains and intellects have been evolving independently. Similarities in the mental skills of birds and mammals are mostly the result of convergent evolution, rather than any recent shared ancestry. They don't have any recent shared ancestors. The various components of the cognitive toolkit are adaptations that evolved independently in birds and mammals to solve some of the same problems of survival and reproduction. It's hard to know why any particular bird or other species evolved to become intelligent, but we can be sure that natural selection is the process that got them there. Biologists have identified a number of possible driving forces or selective forces that could have propelled the rise of avian intelligence. Foraging for food was probably an important driver in this evolutionary process. A problem-solving brain is an enormous advantage in the quest for tasty treats.

Multiple components of intelligence are useful for finding, obtaining, and storing food in an optimal way. Smart birds like the Kia of New Zealand are able to quickly alter their foraging strategies in response to new food sources or changing environmental conditions. Intelligent birds would also be better at avoiding predators. Think back to our green bee eater from the intro. The bee eater improves its chances of survival and the survival of its babies by having the cognitive ability to put itself in the shoes of a would-be predator. And for some species or some bird families, the evolution of intelligence may have been driven by the pressures of society. Like humans, many of the smartest birds and other animals are highly social.

Being able to remember who's who in the group, as well as understand the many hierarchical relationships among everyone, can bring advantages to a social bird like a parrot. Birds that can sort all of this out may be able to jockey for an advantageous position in the community. They might survive longer and have more offspring as a result. Similarly, birds that maintain long-term pair bonds with their mates need to have certain cognitive skills to understand the needs of their partners. Like, when she gives you that look, it means you better mow the lawn tomorrow or they'll be hell to pay, Buster. But seriously, there are a lot of nuances to the social interactions between a bonded pair of birds. Navigating them requires some sophisticated cognitive tools.

But a pair of intelligent birds that cooperate to raise their babies efficiently and successfully, they're going to be really good at passing their genes down to the next generation. So, to review, the selective forces that may have driven the evolution of intelligent, in birds are one, the need to be flexible and solve problems in the quest for food. Two, the need to avoid predators. Three, the demands of a complicated social network. And four, the need to attract and maintain a strong social bond with your mate. I've given you a few examples of brainy birds. But which of the world's birds are really the smartest?

The answer is, of course, owls. Owls are wise and all-knowing. I mean, look at those enormous eyes that just stare into your very soul and make you feel shamefully inadequate in a vague way that you'll never understand, except maybe on your deathbed, but by then it'll be too late. Your last words might be, The owl was right. So owls are wise, except that they aren't.

Owls aren't actually any smarter than your average bird. They might not be stupid, but they aren't especially clever either. You already guessed that if you've been paying attention, because I haven't once mentioned owls until now. Western European culture has just been lying to us all these years. Owls are wonderful, for sure, but they aren't among the brightest birds. There are, however, several bird families that outshine all the rest. These are the family Corvidi and the three parrot families.

Corvody, as I think you know by now, is the family that includes all of the world's jays, crows, ravens, magpies, rooks, jackdaws, and what have you. As I mentioned, the new Caledonian crow and Clark's Nutcracker are Corvids. Among corvids, we find the full gamut of abilities in the cognitive toolkit. it. These birds make tools, understand cause and effect, have a theory of mind, and so on. Some of them even understand the displacement of water. The rook, Corvus Frugelius, is a species of crow found across Europe and Asia. In experiments, rooks figured out how to reach a worm floating in a transparent, water-filled cylinder. The birds picked up small stones and dropped them in the water one at a time to raise the water level. The rooks raised the water until they could

reach the floating worm. Eurasian J's and New Caledonian crows were just as clever at solving this puzzle. Carion crows in Japan place large nuts on the road at busy traffic stops. A crow will wait until a car drives over and cracks the nut, then it swoops in to snatch its well-deserved snack. The carrion crows can't crack these nuts open on their own, and this amazing behavior is not instinctual. It's learned and passed from bird to bird. They've been doing this only since the 1990s. We could go on and on with fun examples like this, but the bottom line is that Corvids are smart little dudes and dudettes. Parrots are similarly impressive. Besides Kia, one of the best-known super-smart parrot species, is the African gray parrot,

cetacus erythacus. This large and handsome gray bird has a red tail and a big old brain. The most famous gray parrot was Alex. For over 30 years, Alex was the research subject of Dr. Irene Pepperberg. Alex eventually learned over 100 words, including those to describe shapes, colors, types of food and categories. He didn't just mimic these words, blurting them out at random. He used them to communicate, for real. Alex understood complex ideas

such as same and different. He could count and add numbers up to eight and even had some grasp of the idea of zero or none. In some ways, Alex was as smart as a five-year-old child. Alex was 31 when he died in. his sleep of natural causes. His last words were the same that he said to Dr. Pepperberg every night. You be good. I love you. See you tomorrow. Parrots and Corvids routinely perform as well or better than monkeys and apes in cognitive experiments. Like Alex, may he rest in peace, some of these

birds are probably smarter than your dog and maybe even your toddler, at least in a few cognitive dimensions. So why are these birds so dang smart? The proximate cause, or reason, is that they have relatively large complex brains. But what's the ultimate cause? What drove the evolution of these scintillating brains in the first place? An answer begins to emerge when we compare corvids and parrots to primates across multiple dimensions. We find that all of these critters should.

share some interesting behavioral and ecological traits. They're all social, they have long childhoods, their vocal learners, their omnivorous generalists in terms of their diets, and they live a long time. To meet the demands of this way of life, it seems that birds and primates have benefited from being intelligent. Plenty of other bird species, other than corvids and parrots, display intelligent behaviors. We talked about bee-eaters and great tits as a couple examples. Clever behaviors are displayed by birds as diverse as grackles, falcons, woodpeckers, pigeons,

cormorants, and bower birds. It's just that corvids and parrots are the crem de la creme, the best of the best among birds. Sometimes researchers half-jokingly call them feathered apes, which then makes me wonder what these birds call us humans. Plucked parrots? Naked ravens? Now, the logical next question is, Who are the world's least intelligent birds? That's not as easy to answer.

I mean, researchers aren't necessarily out there designing experiments to determine how slow-witted birds are. That said, there's at least some evidence that primitive birds like chickens, turkeys, quail, ostriches, and the emu of Australia aren't all that. that bright. Such birds come from ancient lineages. For over 70 million years, these simpletons have been doing just fine. It just goes to show that high intelligence isn't a prerequisite for success in the game of life. Insert joke about political leaders here. In fact, the vast

majority of animals don't display much intelligence at all, at least not in the conventional primate sense. So below average or non-existent intelligence isn't necessarily a liability. It may not matter if your IQ is in the single digits. As long as you can survive long enough to crank out more babies than your neighbors, you're a winner. It isn't easy for scientists to study intelligence in humans, much less non-human animals like birds. As I mentioned, there are some major challenges in this kind of research, including what Mark Twain called our dull perceptions. So we have to applaud the many researchers who have worked hard to understand the minds of birds.

Because of them, our view of bird intelligence has done a 180 over the last century. And the work continues. Scrolling through my news feed, it seems like every week there's a new groundbreaking study that illuminates some aspect of avian intelligence. It's an exciting time, for sure. First, we figured out that the world isn't flat. Then we found out that heavy drinking doesn't kill brain cells. And it turns out that birds aren't the imbeciles that we thought they were.

What's next? Are scientists going to discover that it's not healthy for me to eat 25 cookies in less than 15 minutes? How crazy would that be, right? Thanks so much for exploring avian intelligence with me today. As I said at the beginning of the episode, this is a vast topic, and we've just scratched the surface here. So if you'd like to learn more, I'll put some links to books about bird intelligence in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to the Science of Birds podcast, so you don't miss any new episodes. You can also sign up for my email newsletter by going to Science of Birds.com.

There's a sign-up form there on the website. You can always send me an email directly if you have any feelings or thoughts to share. Like, for example, maybe you want to challenge me on the way I pronounce scientific names. Feel free, but please know that I really care about this stuff and I try really hard to get them right. I reference pronunciation guides for biological Latin and so on. But I'm sure I don't always achieve the best pronunciation. Anyway, my email address is Ivan at Scienceofbirds.com. The show notes for this episode, which is number 25, are on the Science of Birds website,

which is, once again, scienceofbirds.com. I'm your humble host, Ivan Philipson. Thanks again, and I'll catch you on the next episode. Peace.