Birds exhibit a range of intelligent behaviors that rival even those of humans and other mammals. From tool use to cooperation, reasoning, and communication, birds demonstrate remarkable cognitive abilities that offer insights into the evolution of intelligence.
Tool Use
Some birds use tools to accomplish tasks in their environment. Crows, parrots, woodpecker finches, Egyptian vultures, andscrub jays are among the most sophisticated avian tool users. They craft probes out of twigs and other objects to poke into holes to capture insects and larvae. They also modify branches and other natural materials to fashion hooks to reach or extract food from tough places.
New Caledonian crows exhibit some of the most advanced tool use capabilities. In the wild, they fashion complex hooked tools out of sticks, grass stems, and barbed leaves. They use these tools to probe into holes to snag insect prey. New Caledonian crows can also spontaneously solve novel problems using tools in the lab, an ability once thought to be exclusive to humans and great apes.
Insight and Problem Solving
Along with tool use, some birds demonstrate the ability to gain sudden insight into solving problems. Rooks, for example, have solved problems spontaneously that they failed to solve after weeks of trial-and-error attempts. This flash of insight points to advanced cognitive skills that involve mental modeling and imagination.
Studies on pigeons have found they are capable of insightful problem solving as well. Pigeons demonstrated they could learn abstract rules about relationship between sets of items. They can then apply those rules to solve novel problems and sort items they have never encountered before.
Self-Recognition
Self-recognition is another benchmark of intelligence previously thought to be possessed only by humans and a few great ape species. However, in a 2016 study, scientists found that magpies can pass the classic mirror test used to assess self-recognition.
When presented with a mirror, the birds showed behaviors indicating they recognized their own reflections. They exhibited self-directed behaviors like pecking at marks on their bodies seen only in the mirror. This suggest a level of self-awareness rare among non-mammal species.
Communication
Parrots and corvids possess impressive communication abilities. They can mimic human speech and other noises with a high degree of accuracy. Some parrots have vocabularies of hundreds of words. Studies show they can combine words they know creatively to express novel ideas.
Ravens, crows, jays, and other corvids have elaborate systems of vocalizations to share information. They can convey information about types of predators, alert others to food sources, and recognize individuals by their calls alone.
Social Intelligence
Flocking birds like pigeons exhibit signs of advanced social intelligence. Pigeon flocks follow a flexible democratic leadership style in their movement decisions. Each bird weights its own preference continuously against the direction of the group majority. This allows the flock to quickly adapt to changing conditions.
Some birds also demonstrate the social skill of deception. Ravens have been observed leading other ravens to hidden food they do not intend to share. They can deceive by providing false information through their vocalizations and behavior.
Reasoning
Select bird species are capable of advanced reasoning approaching human-like intelligence. Studies on New Caledonian crows and other corvids suggest they can reason analogically. When presented with before and after pictures, they can solve the intermediary steps using logic.
Many experts argue just a handful of other animals like great apes demonstrate analogical reasoning. The fact some birds can do the same force scientists to re-evaluate assumptions about the origins and evolution of intelligence.
Observational Learning
Observational learning involves acquiring new knowledge and skills by observing the behaviors of others. Humans and certain primate species display extensive observational learning abilities.
However,birds such as blue tits and zebra finches also show evidence of learning new foraging skills by observing knowledgeable individuals. They can comprehend and reproduce complex novel behaviors simply by watching other birds.
Numerical Understanding
Studies have found some birds possess numerical skills and basic mathematical competence. Baby domestic chickens can add and subtract. Hornbills demonstrate an understanding that fluid levels decline as an amount is removed. Rhesus macaques have shown advanced arithmetic skills like addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
Such numerical competence is considered a complex cognitive ability. Its presence across birds and other animals provides clues into the early evolution of math-related intelligence.
Spatial Intelligence
Most birds navigate over long distances during migration or regular travel. Many rely on advanced spatial intelligence to accomplish these feats. They form cognitive maps to chart routes and remember locations across vast terrain.
Experiments with food-storing birds like Clark’s nutcrackers show they recall cache locations with pinpoint accuracy thanks to spatial mapping abilities. They use landmarks and other cues to identify spatial coordinates and remember thousands of cache sites.
Theory of Mind
Theory of mind involves the ability to attribute mental states like desires, beliefs, and intentions to others. It is considered crucial for advanced social intelligence.
While controversial, some recent studies suggest certain birds like ravens may possess a rudimentary theory of mind. Ravens appear able to understand what competitors can see when vying for hidden food. They also seem to respond to human gaze in a way that suggests an awareness that others may hold visual perceptions different than their own.
Brain Structures
Bird brains share some neuronal structures and connectivity with mammal brains that facilitate complex cognition. The avian pallium region corresponds functionally to the mammalian cortex. While structured differently, it contains neural loops that support higher mental functions.
Birds also evolved neural circuits between forebrain and thalamus regions. These circuits generate recurrence that allows the brain to maintain information over time. This process is vital for abilities from tool use to self-recognition.
Conclusion
The cognitive achievements of birds provide profound insight into intelligence. They demonstrate that complex mental abilities like tool use, reasoning, and likely consciousness itself evolved in parallel in distantly related branches of life. This challenges many assumptions about intelligence as solely a primate trait.
Understanding how bird brains achieve similar endpoints to mammals through different neural architecture opens new avenues to study the age-old mystery of how minds work. Each avian cognitive marvel moves the science closer to grasping the universal foundations of intelligence itself.
