Intelligent birds

Many people give birds a bad rap. They think of them as simple creatures that simply eat and poop on their cars. Research has over and over proved that this is not true. Science Daily lays out the basic argument:

The level of intelligence in birds, as a scientific inquiry, has not been as thoroughly researched as similar questions regarding primates and other mammals.

However, there is a general belief that they are more intelligent, as a class, than the reptiles, and that many species are just as intelligent as mammals of comparable size.

Because birds lack forelimbs with which to modify their surroundings, it is often difficult to test for intelligence as we would define it for mammals.

Traditionally, biological science has maintained that most actions performed by birds that may indicate intelligence are merely ingrained instinctual behaviours and that birds are unable to learn.

While parrots have the distinction of being able to mimic human speech, studies with the African Grey Parrot have shown that some are able to associate words with their meanings and form simple sentences.

Along with parrots, the crows, ravens, and jays (family Corvidae) are perhaps the most intelligent of birds..

For more information about the topic Bird intelligence, read the full article at Wikipedia.org,

Lots of love

The birds are busy with eggs in the nests.


Pigeons


Chickens


The hawks seem like they are spending more time in close, but I haven't actually observed any lovin'. I like to think that Tess has been more territorial in her cage, but it may just be wishful thinking. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I wonder how he feels about peregrines

Anybody, I mean anybody, can love birds.
Read it all here.

"Mike Tyson and Animal Planet? They don't seem to go together, do they?" said Tyson. According to the N.Y. Post, the former heavyweight champ owns "a few hundred birds" at lofts in New Jersey and Brooklyn.

The Birdman of Boxing will be racing pigeons on his new Animal Planet show, "Taking on Tyson."

Does use of tools define humans?

For a long time, one of the defining tenants of humanity was that humans were capable of planning, for-thought, and the use of tools. Since that time there have been discoveries that other animals are capable of using tools without being trained to do so.

Chimps have been observed using sticks to probe for grubs and ants, and crows have been seen fashioning hooks and probes as well.


So, using tools to manipulate other tools could be considered a higher level of thinking. One article states:

...[U]sing tools to make or retrieve other tools has long been considered a hallmark of human intelligence, and has often been interpreted as evidence of advanced cognitive abilities, such as planning and analogical reasoning.

They then go on to state:

Experiments by researchers at Oxford University show that New Caledonian crows in captivity spontaneously used up to three tools in the correct sequence to achieve a goal — a feat never before seen in non-human animals without explicit training.

Five out of seven birds tested figured out how to extract different lengths of sticks from tubes so they could ultimately get one long enough to fish out a morsel of food at the bottom of the deepest tube.

In all, the crows needed three sticks of different lengths to achieve their objective of reaching the food — and four of the five successful birds came up with the sequence needed on the first try.

Raven, a close relative to the crow.

The conclusion? Well, they aren't quite sure, except that these birds are smart, scary smart.

"It seems that there might be something about this family of birds that is a little bit more similar to our own problem-solving abilities," acknowledged Wimpenny. "But obviously much more needs to be done in terms of experiments."

Maybe we need to take a closer look at what makes us human.
Hat tip to Terrierman for this one, and you can read the rest here.

Birds around Town

Just a few pictures of some birds in the nest around town.


Purple martins

Robin sitting tight.

Some kind of swallow.



Osprey with young above the putt-putt course.

2,500 Year Old Falcon Nest

Thanks to Patrick for this one.

A Gyrfalcons nest has been found in Greenland that can be dated back thousands of years.

A 2,500-year-old bird's nest has been discovered on a cliff in Greenland.

The nesting site is still continually used by gyrfalcons, the world's largest species of falcon, and is the oldest raptor nest ever recorded.

Three other nests, each over 1,000 years old, have also been found, one of which contains feathers from a bird that lived more than 600 years ago.

Read the rest here.

Begging Pigeons

Baby pigeons can make a serious racket! This one is about a month old and just starting to grow into his feathers. He is an only child as egg #2 did not hatch. Now he spends his time begging to momma for food.

If mother doesn't comply, he will follow her around placing his face directly in her path. She won't gor far since she knows that he is hungry.


Finally the little bird corners the mom in a corner. She can't easily get away from her, and he wraps his wing around her shoulders to further keep her where he wants her. Then, she finally gives in to him.

She opens her mouth while he finally stops his screaming. he pushes his beak deep down her throat to receive his daily feed.

He reminds me of a little troll, taking his dinner from his mother.

The (other) Baby Birds

I'm waiting on my Harris' hawks to get busy. Nothing has happened yet.



But the other birds have been very busy! When I went away for spring break. The chickens were able to amass a nest full of eggs. One of the chickens decided to get a bit broody, so she is now sitting pretty on the nest. Additionally, I brought back a bunch of eggs from my brothers chickens. His are white, while mine are mostly dark. I think some of his birds would add a nice contrast. So I don't know how many chicks I will have running around.


The pigeon babies are getting bigger, but boy are they ugly - I'm sure someone will disagree - but they are some homely birds.


And in the meantime, another one of the pigeons has been laying, hidden, down in the corner. I'll be keeping an eye on her.



Ulrich, unfortunately, is still too fat after I fed him up. I've started bringing his weight back down.

Any harris breeders out there who can give me some advice on getting two inexperienced birds going?

Red tail hawk

This is Andrew with his male Red tail hawk. This bird was trapped by Lake Mattamuskeet in NC. He flew it last winter with good success, and kept it over the winter. This will be the first time that Andrew has worked with a bird for more than one season.

It's a good bird that follows well. He hunts primarily squirrels - but we're thinking about trying some car hawking with it.