Smart Birds...!

I've mentioned before about crows being one of my favorite birds because they seem to be so smart. Here's more proof for ya.

Higher Intelligence In Birds And Primates

Photo credit: Mdf/Wikimedia

Several bird species, notably crows, are considered to be among the most intelligent animals on the planet. They display uncommon ingenuity in nature, and city-dwelling birds have been seen to adapt easily to human behaviors such as waiting for traffic to stop before venturing into the street.

In a 2004 meta-analysis, two Cambridge University professors observed that despite having completely different brain structures, crows and primates use a remarkably similar set of mental tools absent in nearly every other species—anticipation and natural reasoning—to solve problems. Most primates and other intelligent animals (such as dolphins) that share these qualities are social, like crows, and have large brains, again like crows, which have enormous brains for their size, about the same size as that of a chimpanzee brain.

Crows are also among the only animals other than primates to make tools, like hooks for catching prey. Crows from different regions will construct different tools for the same purpose. Another large-brained bird, the Western scrub jay, is able to remember and apply context to social interactions, such as remembering the bird that stole their food and not allowing that individual bird to see where their food is stored in the future.

Gotta keep an eye on those scrub jays as well. A vindictive bird with a sharp beak isn't one to mess with!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Rain and high winds call for it!