Yesterday I was listening to Michael Feldman’s “Whad’ya Know?” on the public radio station, and he was talking with some gentlemen (unfortunately I can’t remember his name) about avian neurology. Up until now, birds have been placed somewhere just below mammals on the evolutionary scale. This is largely due to the short-sited linear view that was taken by many to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Today, the evolutionary scale is viewed as something more like a tree. This gives room to place species, or possibly even genera, on even plains when necessary.
Recent behavioral studies of birds has revealed that they have far more cognitive and reasoning skills than was once thought to be true in the scientific communities. Findings have shown that many birds have the ability to conduct complex semantic communication with each other, as well as reciprocal communication with humans. Parrots in particular, it has been discovered, can not only develop a sizable human vocabulary, but can also apply that vocabulary meaningfully, telling their keeper the colors of blocks or pointing to the block that is made of wood, for instance.
In one experiment, they found that pigeons had what appeared to be the ability to lie. If I understood the scenario correctly, they placed a female on one side of a cage, and a male on the other, with a wall between the two. The female had two buttons on her side, one to partially release food for herself, and one to partially release food for the male. The male had one button on his side, and neither pigeon could get food until the male pushed this button, and released the food completely. They found that the female pigeon caught on quickly to this scenario and, realizing that she couldn’t get her food unless the male pigeon came to release his own, she instead began to only pretend to peck the button that released the male’s food. The male, having learned that when the female went to get food he would also get food, would run to the front of the cage to release it for himself. The female would then grab her food, leaving the male with nothing.
Birds also have incredible memories, superior to humans in some aspects. After some long-term behavioral studies, scientists observed that some species of birds would hide seeds throughout their territory before migrating, often in thousands of different locations. Upon their return in the following season, they would slowly make their way around to each and every location, recovering the seeds that they had hidden months prior. Busy little critters, wouldn’t you say?
Over an unknown period of time within the last century, crows have learned to wait on telephone lines near highly trafficked roads, understanding through observation that some poor unexpecting animal will inevitably get flattened by an oncoming truck and make a nice meal for them and their friends. In Japan, crows have been seen to wait for the stop lights to turn red, run out into the road with a nut or two, run back to the curb and wait for the traffic to crack their food open, then run back out into the road to get their meal when the next red light comes around.
Yes, from pigeon pranks to crow’s nuts, birds have demonstrated reasoning and cognitive skills far beyond their “bird brain” reputation. So the next time you see an old woman talking to the pigeons in the park, you might think twice before you write her off as crazy.
