Birds: Tiny Brains but Mighty Brains

I recently watched a NOVA documentary called "Bird Brain." Here are some important takeaways:

RESEARCHERS

1. Auguste von Bayern’s research focuses on understanding the complexities of animal thinking, specifically in pair-bonded species’. She works with and conducts research involving corvids (new caledonian crows, jackdaws) and parrots. 

2. John Marzluff is an influential wildlife scientist/author who has discovered that crows can identify faces and communicate information related to specific faces socially AND intergenerationally. He has pioneered behavioral brain-imaging in birds. 

3. Valerie Dufour’s research focuses on studying animal economics. In the context of the documentary, her research focuses on studying the cognitive/social behaviors of rooks and their social dynamics/social modulations (changes in how they interact w/ one another).

EXCERPTS

(21:17 to 21:56) “Both birds [in the trial] found four different solutions to the puzzle, showing they’re able to think flexibly. The ability to think flexibly is certainly a hallmark of a cognitively advanced animal. So rather than having this set response to a stimulus every time, now [they’re found to] have a whole battery of responses that could be put into play. And now it’s a mental task to sort among which ones are best for a given situation.”

• This excerpt surprised me as to the depth of intelligence a bird possesses. If birds can adapt this well when faced with a rapidly changing challenge, they could potentially solve all sorts of problems that we haven’t tested them on. 

(47:08 to 47:45) “Marzluff discovered that the crows were somehow telling each other that the person in the caveman mask was dangerous. And what’s more amazing, even though the team never again caught crows with the mask on, that reaction has been passed down through several generations. It’s been 11 years since we caught seven birds on our campus with this mask. And nearly half the birds we encounter on a given day respond strongly to that face. Even though they weren’t born at the time we did our first capture. The only experience they have with that caveman is hearsay.”

• I already knew that crows have facial recognition capabilities, but I’m impressed that they can transmit this knowledge intergenerationally. How do they inform the next generation of their trauma/trauma response? Is it inherited or taught, and if so, how is it taught?

IMPORTANT IDEAS

Bird Brain showcased the various ways researchers better our understanding of animal behavior, specifically bird behavior. Birds are capable of applying instinctive behaviors to learned cues, allowing them to problem solve in a plethora of situations. For example, a raven (named bran) in the documentary was given a problem and figured out a solution using his environment/tools, a hallmark of higher intelligence. Next, Kea parrots have among the most adaptable avian brains; they evolved these brains to survive a demanding, constantly changing environment that selected only those with the most flexible problem-solving skills. Moreover, New Caledonian Crows are the only wild bird species that routinely uses tools to survive, predisposing them to cognitive flexibility/adaptability. 

“The ability to learn skills in one context, then transfer them to another context, is another thing that allows researchers to infer that this [bird play behaviors that facilitate skill learning] is a conscious process going on. That these are not just instinctive behaviors, that they’re learning new things, and that they’re able to transfer this knowledge.” (24:07) Birds who demonstrate skill transfer are demonstrating consciousness; anyone who underestimates these animals is in for a surprise. Birds are capable of solving a puzzle by “watching another bird. This is called social learning, and it’s considered very high-level thinking. It’s certainly more advanced than an imprinted behavior. It’s also much more advanced than a behavior that you learn by individual trial and error.” (30:58) Nobody expected rooks (a corvid) to have social learning capacity, as this is a trait of only the most intelligent social animals and highly increases survival odds. 

At a physiological level, birds may have small brains, but “the number of neurons is a better indication of brain power than the physical size of the brain. And this is an interesting thing that we’ve learned recently, that bird brains actually pack a lot more neurons into a particular area than mammal brains.” (13:26) This is related to how in Time, “The Animal Mind”, Chapter 1: Intelligence, “a collaborative team at MIT and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that while the specialized cells in each section of mammalian basal ganglia [the part of the brain responsible for learning procedural memory, such as riding a bike or assembling something] do equally specialized work, the undifferentiated ones in birds’ brains multitask, doing all those jobs at once.” Similar to what was said in the documentary, birds have a lot of processing power packed into a small brain that runs its basal ganglia at maximum efficiency compared to mammals. 

Crows pass the marshmallow test, demonstrating future planning & delayed gratification capability: trading something good now for something better later. Crows/jays hide food/toys for later; memorizing hiding spots requires immense memory skills & planning. Furthermore, they can recognize faces and will hide things differently when a trustworthy face is watching versus when an untrustworthy face is watching. Moreover, crows have demonstrated emotional capacity in social situations (crow funerals and comforting an anxious friend) which “raises the possibility that ravens might understand what other ravens are feeling. This is called theory of mind (the hypothesis that animals are capable of mentally putting themselves in the perspective of other animals), and it might be the next frontier in understanding how birds think.” (49:17) Basically, birds more or less feel emotions similar to how we feel emotions.