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Not a lot about bird brains in general, instead discussion of some informal experimentation with urban crows. I volunteer at a raptor conservation centre and h
by KineticLensman 3y ago
Not a lot about bird brains in general, instead discussion of some informal experimentation with urban crows.
I volunteer at a raptor conservation centre and have been impressed by the behaviours of the different birds, and the degree of mentation that is going on (or not). The smartest birds I met there were Caracaras [0] which could be trained to do various tricks, including carrying objects from one place to another, and could solve simple puzzles. Perhaps surprisingly, given their reputation for being wise, owls were some of the least intelligent, partly because their skulls have so much space occupied by their eyes compared with diurnal birds.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracara_(genus) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracara_(genus)
- tech_ken 3y agoAny reading recs for actual info on bird brains?
- tokai 3y agoOlkowicz, et al. (2016) Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1517131113 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1517131113
- KineticLensman 3y agoSorry, nothing specific. A while ago I read 'Bird Sense' by Tim Birkhead but this is about their sensory systems rather than their intelligence as such, and is a bit discursive. There are a couple of useful starting points on Wikipedia, such as [0] and [1]. In general, birds are sometimes surprisingly different to mammals. Their eyes are quite different. For example, raptor vision has a much higher acuity and framerate than ours, and many birds do different things with their left and right eyes. Their respiration is also different (including lungs that have 'in' and 'out' pipes), which allows something like a falcon to eat the moment it has finished hunting, unlike say a cheetah, which has to get its breath back before eating after a successful chase. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_brain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_brain [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_intelligence
- bwestergard 3y agoJennifer Ackerman's "The Bird Way"
- Fricken 3y agoInstagram. There's a bottomless supply of videos showing birds being clever
- vadim_phystech 3y agoawesome comment! Thank you, KineticLensman! (and nickname is also super cool)
- KineticLensman 3y agoThank you! Nickname is a play on where I used to work and one of my hobbies.
- ratrocket 3y agoThere's a great book about caracaras from a few years ago called "A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey" by Jonathan Meiburg. I highly recommend it! (And a trivia note, the author is perhaps better known as a musician, most notably in the bands Shearwater and Loma.) Book (no wiki link, but this seems OK): https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/982631076/-a-most-remarkable-creature https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/982631076/-a-most-remarkable-... Author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Meiburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Meiburg Didn't think I'd see caracaras mentioned when I opened up hacker news this morning, thanks!
- rotexo 3y agoSecond this book recommendation. He is a very engaging author (and his music is amazing too).
- goberoi 3y agoAs an aside: owls being wise is a cultural belief. In India, owls are considered unintelligent, and calling someone an owl is akin to calling them a fool. Interesting how these perceptions are diametrically opposite!
- yencabulator 3y agoIn Finnish, owl translates as pöllö, which in modern day everyday spoken language also means dumb/silly/crazy. I can't quickly find any evidence of any old owl symbology that wouldn't just be imported from a different culture. Most of the surrounding countries considered owls to be birds of death, accidents and misfortune. So yeah, I'd say Finland agrees with India on this.