Birds Are Smart

It has been a long-standing belief that birds are dumb animals due to their rather weird brain structure, which lacks the neocortex, the part of the mammalian brain responsible for working memory, planning, and problem solving. But in recent years, scientists found out that birds are, in fact, smart animals, who are capable of making tools, as well as understanding abstract concepts. They can also recognize paintings by Monet and Picasso. But what makes them capable of doing these things? They don’t have a neocortex, right?

Now, researchers have found a previously unknown arrangement of microcircuits in the avian brain that may be analogous to the mammalian neocortex. And in a separate study, other researchers have linked this same region to conscious thought.

The two papers are already being hailed as groundbreaking. “It’s often assumed that birds’ alien brain architecture limits thought, consciousness, and most advanced cognition,” says John Marzluff, a wildlife biologist and specialist on crows at the University of Washington, Seattle, who was not involved with either study. Researchers who have “demonstrated the cognitive abilities of birds won’t be surprised by these results,” he adds, “but they will be relieved.”

“This research confirms the old adage that looks can be deceiving,” Marzluff says. Although bird and mammalian brains “look very different, this study shows us they are actually wired in very complementary ways.”

So the next time someone calls you a “bird-brain”, thank that person for complimenting your intelligence.