rivercrow

It’s fitting that the same week scientists announce support for the theory that dinos and birds are related, Der Spiegel runs a story on the intelligence of ravens.

The last several years seem to have had an explosion of “smart corvid” stories, ranging from the Japanese crows who crack nuts with the assistance of traffic and traffic lights to the New Caledonian crow who chooses, makes, and maintains tools.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve lived with parrots since 1992 and been a bird-watcher and crow-lover since I was six. Scientific discoveries like these are confirmations of what I have observed–I’m glad to see that the realities of avian intelligence are making mainstream press.

More information:

• New Caledonian crow tool manufacture and use by the Department of Psychology, University of Auckland
• Shaping of Hooks in New Caledonian Crows by A. A. S. Weir, J. Chappell, A. Kacelnik, Science 297, 981 (2002)
• Crows Are Brainiacs by David Challinor, from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park
• Birdbrains no more at Bora Zivkovic’s Science and Politics blog. Collections of articles and links regarding avian intelligence
• Our ignorance of intelligence at Aaron Clauset’s Structure and Strangeness blog. Links to various articles on avian brain structure and comparison with mammalian brain structure.

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