Bird Brain Documentary

Birds could they be smart, solve problems, cooperate, feel emotions. They are much more like us then we can imagine.

A ten year old scarlet macaw, Rio, is a talented gymnast entertainer (3:21). He can fly on cue. An experiment is tested, and he tries the sting pull test. Peanut attached to a string. Usually, macaws are not trained to do so in the wild. This implies that they can visualize puzzles. They repeated this experiment, but with a different bird, John (11:10). However, it is much harder with 2 strings, and the rewards and strings are swapped around. There is an additional layer of processing. They eventually learn how to pull the right one. When they repeat the experiment there is no trial and error. This shows that birds can plan mentally.

Crows and parrots some of the most intelligent species because they have more brain cells/ neurons than other animals. They also have a large brain compared to their body size. Parrots have a life span of 80 years, gives them plenty of time things to learn new things.

According to one of the TIME articles, Animals Aren’t Supposed to Feel Grief. But if this isn’t Mourning What is it?, by Jeffrey Kluger, animals also mourn and have feelings just like us. This can be seen with Wek, a New Caledonain crow. Auguste Von Bavern works with New Caledonian crows, which are considered one of the most intelligent bird species. Wek wears a collar because she lost her mate. She started to pull out her feathers when her partner dies. This is because they mate for life.

Birds can also cooperate not only with other birds, but also with humans, Auguste Von Bayern was testing out how responsive jackdaws were communicative to eye signals. Dhulie, the jackdaw was able to read eye movements indicating the right cup the food was in. She was able to develop object permanency. Similarly, in the TIME article, Animals Talk Even If We Don’t Understand Them, by Jeffrey Kluger, animals need to communicate for survival.“But animals communicate in ways that are suited to their worlds, that keep them fed and safe and alive long enough to reproduce and rear their young,” (78). There are many different ways an animal can communicate with each other not only verbally, but also physically.

Behavior is ruled by instinct. Most of an animal’s actions is explained through instinctive behavior. Flying is instinctive and requires little thought. Birds also imprint by following the actions of others. By using instinct to search for scarce food, it stimulates a better connection in the brain. Birds are able to problem solve and feel emotions. Birds see the world the same way as we do.