intelligence of birds

Dogs do it, rats do it and chimps do it, why not birds? A new study has determined that the Kea, a New Zealand parrot has a “play laugh” that will get other Kea’s to play with them.

Researchers felt that the play laugh was infectious making other birds play with each other. If a bird heard the play laugh and had no one to play with, they would play by themselves. The researchers plan to study more about this aspect of the Kea’s behavior. What is interesting is that this is the first time a researcher has discovered play laughter in a bird. All other research showed it in mammals.

However, this should not be surprising, anyone who has owned multiple birds has seen them play together or at the same time but this is the first time a call or sound has been connected with the behavior

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170320122838.htm

While the structure of a bird’s brain is different from that of a mammal, some birds appear to be as smart as apes. So far research has shown that some birds have diverse cognitive skills, are capable of thinking logically, recognize themselves in a mirror and can show empathy. Some birds have also used objects as tools.

Many bird owners have made this claim for years, but now research conducted by Onur Güntürkün from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Prof Dr. Thomas Bugnyar at the University of Vienna have illustrated that birds are much smarter than previous theories.

I experienced this with my Parrotlet when I taught him to pick up paper clips and put them in a box. When he learned that he would get a treat for putting the clip in the box, he would pick up a clip from the box and slam it down into the box, instead of getting one outside of the box, then look at me as if to say, “You didn’t say which clip I had to put in the box.” Birds are such fun!

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A Blog by Susan Bulanda

Certified Animal Behavior Consultant

How Smart Are Birds? Pretty Smart!