BIRD BRAIN

At this time, I'm going to write a small review about an article from The Guardian, an online newspaper from the UK. I've chosen an article about a recent research which has found that crows use complex reasoning and tools to obtain food.

It really surprised me because, as the new's writer says, having a bird brain usually means to be an idiot, so this research demonstrates the opposite. So, from this perspective, that belief hasn't any foundation and probably it comes from:

1) the behavior of domestic birds that have lived in small cages for hundreds of generations, and

2) the physical structure of bird's brains.

As we know, bird's brain look different than primate and more evolved animals brains. But now, researchers are actually observing wild, never domesticated birds, and they've found this small animals use their brains in a different way to achieve the same goals than humans do. These discoveries are consistent with structural differences.

The following video shows a crow using tools to acomplish a specific goal, something that great apes can´t do:

So, now I’m going to feel flattered everytime someone tells me I have a bird brain haha... It won't be an insult for me anymore.

Complete article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/jan/04/1?INTCMP=SRCH