Birdbrain

Not the insult one might think

Birdbrain is an adjective to describe a stupid person. The phrase reflects the idea that birds are dumb, which in turn feeds into an anthropocentric view of intelligence: we put an increased amount of focus on our own intelligence, neglecting that other animals are also smart. But, even by our own standards, birds show high levels of intelligence. Take the crow, for example.

The crow has demonstrated facial recognition skills. In 2006, University of Washington professor John Marzluff and his students wore a mask, dubbed the “dangerous face.” Crows were exposed to this mask as the team netted and trapped between 7-15 birds at multiple different sites in Seattle, WA. What they observed was that prior to trapping, the crows had little reaction to people wearing the mask, but after trapping, crows would attack and scold people wearing the mask. Additionally, they did not express this hostile behavior to people not wearing the mask. This indicates that the crows accurately identified the faces of those that trapped them and had not developed a newfound hostility towards all people.

But why does it matter that crows can recognize your face? Facial recognition is demonstrative of greater memory abilities within crows. This, paired with crows’ high adaptability when it comes to tool use, shows that crows are not passive observers of the world with visual cues leaving their brains as fast as they enter.

Another bird that demonstrates high intelligence is the parrot. Animal behavioralist Irene Pepperberg studied Alex the African grey parrot for 30 years. Alex is the first nonhuman animal to have ever asked a question. Specifically, he asked “what color?” upon seeing himself in the mirror. This shows that Alex was not just repeating words he heard. He was able to use language to acquire new knowledge. Since this question was in response to his own reflection, it also shows that Alex had self-awareness. Over the 30 years Pepperberg studied him, Alex demonstrated many other cognitive abilities such as human-level understanding of the Müller-Lyer illusion and understanding the concept of zero. In doing so, Alex challenges the idea that human cognition is uniquely superior.

The intelligence of crows and parrots serves as a reminder that nonhuman animals are not mindless creatures floating through life. Internalizing that these animals are as aware as us can help us remember to always respect the world we are a part of.