Almost like people! These 5 birds are so smart you can't even believe
Educational Program A Life / / January 05, 2021
What is reason, scientists have not yet agreed. This concept is too broad: it includes the ability to be aware of oneself as an individual, and social skills, and the ability to solve tricky logical problems, and curiosity, that is, a thirst for new information and experiment. That is why it is so difficult to assess the level of intelligence of this or that living creature. But attempts are being made.
In 2005, Canadian biologist Louis Lefebvre suggestedBird IQ Test Takes Flight to determine the IQ of birds by the degree of ingenuity they show in obtaining food. Lefebvre studied hundreds of scientific publications in the world's ornithological journals and, based on them, named the most cunning birds. The greatest "intellectuals" when it comes to looking for food were crows, falcons, hawks, woodpeckers and herons.
However, Lefebvre himself made a remarkCrows and jays top bird IQ scale: The rating compiled by him speaks not so much about how smart the specific birds are, but about their "innovation", that is, the ability to find non-standard solutions.
If we talk about different types of intellectual activity, and not just about ingenuity in the search for food, like Lefebvre, then the rating of the smartest birds may be different.
Birdwatching studies confirm that birds are much closer to humans in terms of mental abilities than we used to think. And some “smart people” have such outstanding cognitive skills that they surpass primates, young children, and even adults.
1. Crows
There is reason to believe that these birds may be one of the the smartest animals on the ground.
They are ableNeurons selective to the number of visual items in the corvid songbird endbrain count to five. Use tools such as chopsticks to pick insects out of rotten tree stumps. CreateCompound tool construction by New Caledonian crows complex tools - to increase the length of the same stick in order to reach a piece lying too far away. See how it looks.
The skills of the crows impressed scientists, since it was previously believed that only humans and great apes are capable of inventing multi-component tools.
And these birds can alsoUsing the Aesop's Fable Paradigm to Investigate Causal Understanding of Water Displacement by New Caledonian Crows establish causal relationships no worse than 7-year-old children. And in general, it seems, they study us, homo sapiens, with no less interest than we do them. At least knownWild American crows gather around their dead to learn about dangerthat crows have an excellent memory for faces and they are able to get angry with specific people.
2. Magpies
These birds belong to the same family of corvids as crows (as well as jays, jackdaws, rooks). Zoologists consider corvids as intellectuals in general, just crows are more studied today. But other members of the family also demonstrate intelligence.
For example, European magpies easily pass the so-called mirror test, that is, they recognizeMirror ‑ Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self ‑ Recognition yourself in the mirror. This is an extremely complex skill, which assumes that a living creature is able to separate itself from the surrounding world, to be aware of itself as a person.
Children begin to successfully pass the mirror test at the age of at leastWhos Baby In The Mirror? 18 months.
Curiously, psychologists associate this skill with the development of complex self-conscious emotions: sympathy, guilt, embarrassment, shame, pride. Do magpies and other members of the corvid family feel something similar? Maybe. But science does not yet have an exact answer.
3. African gray parrots
According to the common stereotype, the butt is a fool. The birds deserve such a dubious image because they can mechanically repeat human speech, which they do not understand. And this creates dissonance. On the one hand, the parrot can talk - how smart! And on the other - well, it's obvious that he's a fool!
However, not all of the parrot family are fools. Take at least an inconspicuous at first glance, a gray African parrot (gray).
Kevin McGowan, ornithologist at the Cornell University Ornithology Lab, for National Geographic MagazineThere's a lot going on in their small, nut-sized brains. And Grays live so long that they can accumulate a lot of information and memories.Why Ravens and Crows Are Earth's Smartest Birds.
In the 1950s, Irene Pepperberg, a Harvard psychologist and specialist in animal-human communication, began teaching Alex Grays speech. She chose an unusual method: two people were engaged in training the parrot at once, who played different roles. The first is a "teacher": he taught lessons for a parrot and for the second person - a "student". The "student" acted as a kind of role model for the answers of Grays and was for Alex a kind of rival (yes, parrots also have a competitive spirit). Pepperberg called this method of learning the triangle method.
Constant contact with people and the desire to surpass the opponent gave an amazing result. Before his death in 2007, Alex was fluent with about a hundred words, could foresee events and express the corresponding desires. For example, Irene quite meaningfully said to collecting things: "Stay, don't go." He even grasped the meaning of the concepts "the same" and "different", precisely naming the signs by which similar objects differ (for example, the red and blue balls).
Today Dr. Pepperberg is working with another gray - GriffinThe parrot knows shapes. He already knows how to recognize colors, correctly designate two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects (circle, square, parallelepiped) and is getting closer to understanding the concept of "zero".
4. Cockatoo
These handsome crested men, like crows, know how to create "tools of labor." For example, taking a piece of cardboard in their beak, they rake pebbles in search of food. Or they make a kind of drums from sticks and dried plant boxes with seeds, on which they play a love song for the female. It is curious that each male has its own recognizable rhythm and even melody.
Also, cockatoo are talented dancers. They perfectly feel the tempo, rhythm and are able to coordinate movements with increasing volume and tone of music.
See how a cockatoo named Snowball is dancing. National Geographic magazine experts believe he does it even better than many people.
5. Pigeons
These plump and well-fed city birds are considered stupid. And in vain. Pigeons exhibit many intellectual abilitiesThe Surprising Neuroscience of Pigeon Intelligence:
- They know how to recognize words and distinguish them from meaningless combinations of sounds and letters.
- Count to nine. This result is even steeper than that of the recognized "intellectuals" - the crows and many primates.
- They have an amazing memory. Pigeons are able to memorize 725 random black and white images - a task beyond most people.
- They can recognize and discern trends in art. For example, Picasso's paintings are unmistakably distinguished from Monet's paintings.
So the next time, scattering clumsy pigeons that get tangled under your feet, think about it: perhaps these are much more subtle and intelligent natures than most of the surrounding bipeds.
Read also🐦🐈🦌
- 13 of the best animal documentaries
- 13 exciting and very beautiful nature films
- 15 films about animals that will make you touch and cry
- 15 cat myths and exposing them
- 10 misconceptions about animals you shouldn't believe in