They're also very pretty
post
Makes sense. I mean they do fly.
From the article:
Flight imposes strict weight limits, so birds pack enormous numbers of very small neurons into very small brains. Their axons, the long cable-like fibers that transmit electrical and chemical signals between cells, are shorter.
“Long lines take time. Short lines speed everything up,” Nieder said.
My first speculation after reading your comment was that because they fly, they would have to process far more visual stimuli and other sensory inputs (aerodynamics) within a certain time frame compared to mammals most of which are mainly terrestrial. Probably a silly thought, maybe not, I have no idea if this is paralleled in flightless or aquatic birds (if that's been studied).
Flight imposes strict weight limits, so birds pack enormous numbers of very small neurons into very small brains. Their axons, the long cable-like fibers that transmit electrical and chemical signals between cells, are shorter.
“Long lines take time. Short lines speed everything up,” Nieder said.
I've read about this elsewhere, too. It's really fascinating how corvid brains are packed and constructed, part of why they outperform the usual heuristic of brain mass to bodyweight ratio for estimating intelligence.
I for one welcome our new crow overlords ❤️
One of my most told animal stories is about a raven who learned to imitate the iOS message notification and used that to prank people. He'd wait in a tree, make the noise when they were close, and then swoop in laughing if they pulled their phone out, extra hard if they dropped it
Anyways that's one of the experiences that proved to me that intelligence or consciousness or w/e is not even close to a uniquely human trait. At this point it seems like an insanely arrogant and foolish assumption to ever have made, see also the impossibility of designing a trash can to keep out smart bears but not dumb humans
we had a mockingbird that one of our neighbors hated. the bird learned what his alarm sounded like. it'd go sit outside his window and scream at him as soon as the sun was up.
this was the same mockingbird that meowed at cats to lure them out of hiding then dive bomb them.
You're overcorrecting quite a bit on animal intelligence.
Wife said I’m not allowed to feed the friendly neighborhood crows :(
Time for a new wife.
/s
The crows will provide one, when the time is right
They can't really carry a whole human, that's why they just bring bones. DIY wife I guess.
Keep wildlife wild. While you may be kind and careful, not everyone is. Wildlife being comfortable approaching humans frequently ends in their demise.
Agreed in general crows in particular are super good at recognizing individuals and adjusting behaviour accordingly and I’m not allowed to feed them to befriend them lol 😝
i mean crows haven't been "wild" for centuries, if you wanted an animal designed to take advantage of human civilization you'd make a crow with fingers. It's like how cats saw humans storing grains that attracted rodents, and said "hello i live here now and i expect payment for my services"
So if I train one how to read, it would be able to read twice as fast as me? 🤔
Time for actual Avian Intelligence.
"Read this and give me a summary, and I'll give you this entire package of Austin peanutbutter crackers."
Ha! Yet another squirrel collaborator plotting with the corvids!
We know what you guys are up to!
This is just birds in general. Animal brains all process time and information differently.
I've wanted to make crow friends in my new city for the last five years. Always been afraid my dog would turn it into me having crow enemies.
Sometimes I wonder why avids (corvids) let mammals (us) take over the world. What do they know that we don't.
They are a hell of a lot better than coyotes at finding mice behind a combine. I usually see the ravens get 10X the mice exposed in a windrow than any coyote following me around.

all 6 comments