Bird Brains (Avian Intelligence)

[Mighty_Emperor]

We have looked at the intelligence and culture of chimps:
www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3689

monkeys:
forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8372
Link is obsolete. The current link is:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/chimpanzee-culture-intelligence.3689/

cetaceans:
forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12747
Link is obsolete. The current link is:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/cetacean-culture.12747/

and crows:
forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4805
Link is obsolete. The current link is:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/crows.4805/

and this is for more general discussion of avian intelligence:

Birdbrain doesn't mean stupid

Maggie Fox

Reuters


Tuesday, 1 February 2005


Birds are not stupid and their brains are not primitive so it is about time the scientific world gave them full credit, experts say.

An international group of avian experts is taking on the slow-moving world of scientific nomenclature, calling for a new map of the avian brain that reflects its true structure.

The current system dates back 100 years and suggests a bird's brain is mostly basal ganglia, and that this area controls primitive brain function and instinctive behaviour.

In fact neither is true, the researchers argue in the latest issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Bird brains more closely resemble human brains and even so, the basal ganglia is not a primitive region, says US researcher and lead author Assistant Professor Erich Jarvis of Duke University in North Carolina.

"Stop calling people birdbrains meaning stupid. Take it as a compliment," Jarvis says.

A slur on birds

Jarvis, who studies how birds learn vocalisations such as bird songs and imitated speech in parrots, says bird behaviour can be surprisingly complex.

They can use tools and songs, imitate human language to communicate, and can count.

"They can lie. You can teach a pigeon to do something that will have another pigeon get food for a reward. You can find a female pigeon that will pretend a reward for food is coming and then she eats it instead of her mate," Jarvis says.

Jarvis says he is not only defending the intellect of birds.

"We should be able to get more insight into how the human brain works, too."

For instance, "primitive" regions of avian brains are actually sophisticated processing regions that similar to those in mammals, the group says.

"There is strong interest across neuroscience in using birds as models for learning and development, and migratory and social behaviour."

He says some birds have evolved cognitive abilities that are far more complex than in many mammals.

"We believe that names have a powerful influence on the experiments we do and the way in which we think," the researchers write.

Scientists confused too

Jarvis says it was important to change the nomenclature because it was even confusing scientists.

"People would call me up and ask me how birds could do something complex when their brains were so primitive," Jarvis says.

The names scientists use to describe a bird's brain structure date back 100 years to a German scientist, Dr Ludwig Edinger, who is considered the founder of comparative neuroanatomy.

"A lot went into trying to support the idea of a human's place in the evolutionary scheme of animals. They didn't follow Darwin's view that evolution was a tree," Jarvis says.

They tried to link it to religion, a linear system where God created one creature, not good enough, then created another creature, not good enough and then created human, perfect," he adds.

"It was beautiful story but it wasn't true."

The bird experts calling for the change in nomenclature include those from the US, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Source

Scientists propose sweeping changes to naming of bird neurosystems


Researchers now see birds’ cognitive ability as more comparable to mammals

Duke University neurobiologist Erich Jarvis and a team of 28 other neuroscientists have proposed sweeping changes to the terminology associated with the brain structures of birds--a century-old nomenclature the researchers consider outdated and irrelevant to birds’ true brainpower.

The international research group concludes in a Feb. 2005, paper published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience that significant discoveries made over time reveal that birds are much closer to mammals in cognitive ability, and therefore, a new consistency in language will enhance studies of both.

In the journal’s "Perspectives" column, authors describe a wide range of studies demonstrating that the so-called "primitive" regions of avian brains are actually sophisticated processing regions homologous to those in mammals. Those studies, which included tracing of neural pathways and behavior, showed that such avian brain regions carry out sensory processing, motor control and sensorimotor learning just as the mammalian neocortex. The scientists add that molecular studies reveal the avian and mammalian brain regions are comparable in their genetic and biochemical machinery.

In the same column, Jarvis and members of the Avian Brain Nomenclature Consortium reason that the old view of evolution in birds is no longer valid. Citing technical revisions to the nomenclature that were published in a May 2004, issue of the Journal of Comparative Neurology, consortium members assert in the new article that the old terminology--which implied that the avian brain was more primitive than the mammalian brain--has hindered scientific understanding.

"We believe that names have a powerful influence on the experiments we do and the way in which we think," wrote the authors of the new report. "Our current understanding of the avian brain requires a new terminology that better reflects these functions and the homologies between avian and mammalian brains."

The consortium’s efforts were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lead author Jarvis organized the Duke conference in 2002 that brought together the many researchers in neuroscience and neuroanatomy to undertake discussions of the needed changes.

The group believed the previous terminology and associated concepts of how to define avian brain structure and avian brain evolution stymied efforts to directly link discoveries in the avian brain with those of other mammals. Jarvis, whose seminal work in vocal learning in birds garnered him $500,000 in 2002 as recipient of NSF’s Waterman Award, acknowledged that the award came at a critical time in his work with the consortium.

"The impact of this work will go far beyond simple comparative anatomy," Jarvis said. "There is strong interest across neuroscience in using birds as models for learning and development, and migratory and social behavior."

The revision of the nomenclature for avian brains would replace a system developed in the 19th century by Ludwig Edinger, considered the father of comparative neuroanatomy. Edinger’s system was based on a then-common practice of combining Darwin’s recent theory of evolution and Aristotle’s old concept that there exists a natural "scale" of creatures from lowest to highest. The prevailing views became that evolution was progressive from organisms with "lower" intelligence to those with "higher" intelligence and that evolution had a purpose--the generation of humans.

In the new view, the neocortex and related areas in the mammalian brain are derived from a region in the embryonic cerebrum called the pallium, or covering, a very different conclusion from Edinger’s, which considered this region in the bird cerebrum part of the basal ganglia.

The consortium’s work actually began in 1997, and was organized by Jarvis, Anton Reiner of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Martin Wild of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and other neurobiologists, who called themselves the "ThinkTank." Encouraging scientists to adjust their traditions and thinking based on new knowledge coming from the field had a rocky start, so the effort to change avian brain nomenclature turned into a seven-year project, with a steady add-on of new recruits. This effort culminated in the international scientific forum at Duke University in 2002, from which the new nomenclature was developed.

"We knew that we were doing something that may have an impact, not only on the immediate conduct of research in neuroscience, but on neuroscience for the next hundred years," said Jarvis. "And this nomenclature will help people understand that evolution has created more than one way to generate complex behavior--the mammal way and the bird way. And they’re comparable to one another. In fact, some birds have evolved cognitive abilities that are far more complex than in many mammals."

----------------------
Weitere Informationen: www.nsf.gov

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Crows and jays top bird IQ scale

By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter, in Washington DC

Crows and jays are the brain boxes of the bird world, according to a Canadian scientist who has invented a method of measuring avian IQ.

The IQ scale is based on the number of novel feeding behaviours shown by birds in the wild.

The test's creator Dr Louis Lefebvre was surprised that parrots were not high in the pecking order - despite their relatively large brains.

The research was presented at a major science conference in Washington DC.

Feeding innovations

The avian intelligence index is based on 2,000 reports of feeding "innovations" observed in the wild and published in ornithology journals over a period of 75 years.

People tend not to like crows, because they have this fiendish look to them and they're black and they like dead prey
Dr Louis Lefebvre

"We gathered as many examples as we could from the short notes of ornithology journals about the feeding behaviours that people had never seen or were unusual," said Dr Lefebvre, of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

"From that we established different numbers for different birds. There are differences. There are some kinds of birds that score higher than others.

"The crows, the jays, that kind of bird - the corvidae - are the tops; then the falcons are second, the hawks the herons and the woodpecker rank quite high."

Dr Lefebvre said that many of the novel feeding behaviours he included in the work were mundane, but every once in a while, birds could be spectacularly inventive about obtaining their food.

During the war of liberation in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, a soldier and avid bird watcher observed vultures sitting on barbwire fences next to mine fields waiting for gazelles and other herbivores to wander in and get blown to smithereens.

"It gave them a meal that was already ground up," said Dr Lefebvre.

"The observer mentioned that once in a while a vulture was caught at its own game and got blown up on a mine."

Milk thief

Another bird watcher observed a great skua in the Antarctic who joined in with seal pups feeding on the milk from their mother.

Many of the birds that ranked high on the innovation scale are the least popular with the public.

"When you look at published reports on whether people like birds or don't like birds, they don't correlate well with intelligence," said the McGill researcher.

"People tend not to like crows, because they have this fiendish look to them and they're black and they like dead prey. Warblers and the birds that people tend to like are not the high innovators."

But Dr Lefebvre said the scale did not measure how smart birds were, only how "innovative".

"With the word 'smart' you have to have a value judgment. You can never know whether a bird has been learning by observation or has figured something out by itself."

The work was presented to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

---------------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/s ... 286965.stm

Published: 2005/02/22 11:20:45 GMT
© BBC MMV

 

[rynner2]

Recieved by email:

Hi-tech Barn Swallows

A couple of Minnesota Barn Swallows have raised the bar on the scale of "Swallow IQ" For the past four years, a pair of Barn Swallows has nested inside the lumberyard entryway at the Home Depot store in Maplewood, Minnesota. At least one pair has learned that if they fly a tight circle in front of the motion detector above the double doors at the entry to the Home Depot, the doors open Each bird then flies one more loop as the doors open and swoops inside where the pair has built a nest atop a small pipe near the ceiling. When a bird is ready to leave, it flies a tight circl e in front of the motion detector inside the doorway and the doors again open for Home Depot's small avian customers.

Keith Stomberg, a supervisor at the store, first noticed the birds nesting inside in the summer of 2001. He was fascinated by their apparent learned behavior and left them alone to raise their families. It was a good place for the swallows to raise their young because there were no predators or bad weather. The pair typically raised two broods each year. When the birds returned to nest in 2003, he contacted the staff of the Non game Wildlife Program of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Wildlife biologist Joan Galli observed the nesting swallows and was amazed to see how the birds had adapted to the unique setting in order to raise their families. "We typically think of the crow family and the parrot family as among the most intelligent of birds, " according to Galli, "but apparently the swallows have a few tricks of their own that help us appreciate how birds are constantly adapting to survive in novel human-created environments.

THE PRESS REPORT
"Birds Opening the Coop" -- Kermit Pattison in The St. Paul Pioneer Press, 6/26/04:

Some barn swallows apparently have figured out how to operate motion detector doors at the Home Depot store in Maplewood in order to nest indoors safe from weather and predators.

Wildlife biologists from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are observing the birds as an unusual example of learned behavior and adaptation to the human environment.

"I thought this is so unusual that it needs to be recorded and put in the book of knowledge on barn swallows," said Keith Stomberg, the Home Depot employee who first noticed the phenomenon. "This takes deductive reasoning. The term 'bird brain' now has got to be modified."

Steve Kittelson, a DNR wildlife specialist, said it remains unclear to what degree the swallows have "learned" to trigger the motion sensors. Obviously, the birds have figured out that if they circle outside, much as they would instinctively do in front of a closed barn door, they will eventually get through. The question is whether they realize that their own presence actually triggers the door to open.

"It's very interesting and amazing to watch that they can make this work to their advantage," Kittelson said. "It certainly gives them a secure site for nesting. They've eliminated a lot of predators and weather elements. They even have air conditioning."

This year marks the fourth spring the swallows have taken up residence inside the giant home improvement retailer at 2360 White Bear Ave. Now there are at least a dozen nests inside various entrances, said store manager Gregg Barker.

"They'll operate all the doors," said Barker. "All of them do. To get inside, they'll flutter right underneath these sensors until it opens."

The cavernous store has become an attraction for birdwatchers.
"One lady, she stops in once a week just to check them out," said Barker. "I had a couple of groups of bird watchers who come and set up videos to tape them."

Stomberg said he first noticed the unusual behavior about three years ago while working at the contractor's desk near a set of automatic doors.
He said the swallows would flutter by the motion detectors until the door opened and even would do so as a courtesy for birds on the other side who wanted to get through

"One of the assistant managers locked the door early," Stomberg recalled. "The barn swallows weren't done yet. They actually picked him and harassed him until he unlocked the door like, 'Hey! Unlock the door dummy, I'm not done feeding my kids!' "

Stomberg said he called the Department of Natural Resources last year. The DNR officials who came to investigate last spring initially were skeptical, he said, but then "picked their jaws up off the floor" as they watched the birds.

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

I heard somewhere that the Owl, traditionally associated with intellect (why?) actually has one of the smallest brains of the bird world so is one of the more stupid though I'm sure having such good eyes and a swivel head partly makes up for it.

 

[jefflovestone]

I heard somewhere that the Owl, traditionally associated with intellect (why?) actually has one of the smallest brains of the bird world so is one of the more stupid though I'm sure having such good eyes and a swivel head partly makes up for it.

I thought the old was traditionally (in a folkloric sense) associated with wisdom, rather than intellect?

 

[rynner2]

The Owl of Minerva
About the image on these pages

The banner on the UWA Philosophy pages displays a detail from a Greek coin of the sixth century B.C. featuring an image of an owl. The owl was the emblem of ancient Athens and a traditional symbol of wisdom. The other side of the coin depicts Athene, the patron goddess of Athens and goddess of wisdom and of the arts and crafts. Athene was subsequently identified by the Romans with their own goddess of wisdom, Minerva, who, like Athene, is often associated with the owl.

The word 'philosophy' originates in a Greek term, apparently coined by Pythagoras, meaning 'love of wisdom'. The owl of Athene/Minerva has naturally come to symbolize philosophy itself. For example, the influential German thinker Hegel uses it to illustrate his conception of philosophy as understanding the world as it is rather than laying down the law about how it should be, when he says, "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk" (Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Preface, T. M. Knox's translation).

http://www.philosophy.uwa.edu.au/welcome/about_the_owl

 

[jefflovestone]

The Owl of Minerva
About the image on these pages

The banner on the UWA Philosophy pages displays a detail from a Greek coin of the sixth century B.C. featuring an image of an owl. The owl was the emblem of ancient Athens and a traditional symbol of wisdom. The other side of the coin depicts Athene, the patron goddess of Athens and goddess of wisdom and of the arts and crafts. Athene was subsequently identified by the Romans with their own goddess of wisdom, Minerva, who, like Athene, is often associated with the owl.

The word 'philosophy' originates in a Greek term, apparently coined by Pythagoras, meaning 'love of wisdom'. The owl of Athene/Minerva has naturally come to symbolize philosophy itself. For example, the influential German thinker Hegel uses it to illustrate his conception of philosophy as understanding the world as it is rather than laying down the law about how it should be, when he says, "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk" (Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Preface, T. M. Knox's translation).

http://www.philosophy.uwa.edu.au/welcome/about_the_owl

I always think of the wise old owl quietly listening and watching rather than talking and doing as well: ties in with the Twain quote about keeping your mouth shut.

 

[rynner2]

The pelican who fell in love - with a woman
David Lister, Scotland Correspondent

A pelican has fallen in love with the wildlife officer who nursed it back to health.

The pink-backed pelican, a native to sub-Saharan Africa, escaped from a wildlife park on the Isle of Man in October and flew to Northumberland, where it was found suffering from blood poisoning.

The bird, having been taken into care by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), soon started to show signs of affection towards Alexis Bailey, one of the charity’s workers. It displayed mating rituals whenever she entered the room and bit others who approached.

Ms Bailey, 47, who has worked at the SSPCA for eight years, said yesterday that she had never seen anything like it.

“We responded to a call to take in a sick pelican one night in October, and I was the person on hand,” she said. “I came in, gave him his antibiotics and got him settled down for the night. He seems to have been in love with me ever since.

“He looks right into my eyes and puts on what I can only describe as a mating display, with his wings up and his head bowed down. He’ll walk over to me, snuggle in and preen me. He loves to take my hair or my hand in his mouth and he also plays with my shoelaces.”

Ms Bailey added: “It’s only me, for some reason. If I’m not around he’ll tolerate someone else feeding him his fish but as soon as I appear he goes for them.

“He gets in between and his wings go up, his mouth opens wide and he lunges at them, snapping his big beak. He’ll bite if they’re not quick enough to get out of the way. I feel terrible because I know it can be very painful. He has bitten staff, volunteer helpers and the vet.”

The SSPCA was contacted after the bird, which has been nicknamed Romeo, turned up at Haggerston Castle Holiday Park in Northumberland two months ago. It appeared suddenly on a lake in the park. It had blood poisoning, having been attacked by other wildlife, and was kept inside a caravan for warmth until the charity arrived and took it to a rehabilitation centre in Fife.

As she prepared for the bird’s return to Curraghs Wildlife Park on the Isle of Man, Ms Bailey voiced concern about its future without her. “I’m hoping he’ll get over me when he sees other pelicans again,” she said.

Nick Pinder, general manager of the wildlife park, said that he could not comment on the bird’s behaviour, but added that it may have been overwhelmed by the novelty of human contact. He said: “The pelicans are in a one-acre paddock with a lake and other pelicans and they only come to the edge to be fed, so that is the closest they normally come to human contact.”

Ms Bailey added: “I haven’t encouraged this bird. Other staff members have spent more time in its company than me. Everyone tries to be nice to him but he has become attached to me. My colleagues laugh and make jokes, saying he thinks I’m his mate, or that I must have been a pelican in a past life. But I feel quite guilty.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 04,00.html
Link is dead. The MIA article (quoted in full above) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081012123515/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2493904,00.html

 

[Min Bannister]

There is an absolutely stonking photograph of this in The Metro today. :lol: Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in the online version. I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

[Anonymous]

There is an absolutely stonking photograph of this in The Metro today. :lol: Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in the online version. I'll keep an eye out for it.

This it?

 

[Min Bannister]

Hahaha! Yes that was it. Thanks Frobs, nice one! :mrgreen:

 

[WhistlingJack]

Here are some appropriate links that I've found: -

budgieresearch.homestead.com has video and audio of Victor the talking budgie

alexfoundation.org is a site devoted to the study of Alex, an African Grey parrot

BBC News - 'Parrot's Oratory Stuns Scientists'

There's also this board's own 'Bird Communication' thread...

...and my own ignored 'Sparkie Williams and Other Talking Birds' thread

 

[Mattattattatt]

Just listened to some of Victor's conversations

Best talking animal since Jeff the mongoose...

 

[rynner2]

Clever raven proves that it's no birdbrain

Logic and puzzle-solving come naturally to highly intelligent scavenger, claim biologists

by Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer

Scientists have revealed an unexpected candidate for the title of the world's second smartest creature - the raven. According to a pair of researchers, a bird brain is no longer a sign of stupidity; indeed, it could be a sign of surprising intelligence.
In the latest issue of Scientific American, Bernd Heinrich and Thomas Bugnyar - scientists based at Vermont University in Canada and St Andrews University in Scotland, respectively - reveal a series of experiments that provides startling backing for the idea that ravens are the brainboxes of the natural world. 'These birds use logic to solve problems and some of their abilities even surpass those of the great apes,' they say.

One startling experiment they outline involved ravens who were allowed to sit on perches from which pieces of meat dangled from string. To get a treat, a raven had to perform a complex series of actions: pull up some of the string, place a loop on the perch and hold it with a claw, then pull up another section of string and hold that loop on the perch. By repeating this process half a dozen times, a raven could reach the end of the string and get the meat.
'Some animals can be taught how to get food this way,' Heinrich said. 'However, I found ravens could perform this complex sequence of actions straight away. I was extremely surprised the first time I saw one of them do this. These birds have never seen string before or encountered meat hanging this way, yet they worked out exactly what they needed to do to get a treat.'

Many animals, birds and insects are capable of carrying out complex actions: nest-building, for example. However, such creatures are programmed genetically to undertake the different steps involved in such behaviour. Little intelligence is involved. By contrast, ravens have demonstrated that they can work out complex sets of actions, involving no tests or trial and error. This implies that they use logic. 'The birds acted as if they knew what they were doing,' the two researchers say in Scientific American. 'Ravens have the ability to test actions in their minds. That capacity is probably lacking, or present only to a limited extent, in most animals.'

Other experiments by biologists have shown that ravens often let other animals do work for them. In the wild, they have been known to make calls that bring wolves and foxes to dead animals so that these large carnivores can break the carcass apart, making meat accessible to the birds. Birds related to the raven also show surprising intelligence. The New Caledonian crow has been shown to fashion tools of leaves and to use them to extract grubs from crevices in trees, for example.

Scientists such as Heinrich and Bugnyar believe that ravens evolved their surprisingly high intelligence because of their complex social lives and scavenging lifestyles.

The birds have to be able to assess very quickly how close to a wolf or fox they can get when one is eating a dead animal: they need to get close enough to get food, but not be attacked themselves.However, Heinrich cautioned against stating unequivocally that the raven is the cleverest animal on Earth after humans. 'It is up there with the great apes and dolphins,' he said, 'but I think it is very difficult to say which is cleverer. There are different types of intelligence. I am good at biology but hopeless using computers, for example. Nevertheless, it is now clear the raven is one of the very smartest creatures we know about.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/ ... 44,00.html

 

[rynner2]

I found a story in the WMN today about rooks on the railway station at Exeter St Davids...

It seems they are swooping on discarded fag-ends, then cupping their wings over the still-smoking ciggies, as if using the smoke for fumigation, to rid themselves of parasites.

I can't find a link online (it's not even on the WMN site at present), but I hope the story'll get better coverage soon.



Exeter St Davids is opposite a pub called the Jolly Porter, where I spent many evenings at the folk club in the 60s.... (Can we have a nostalgia icon, please?)

 

[rynner2]

RESCUED ROOK TAKES A TIPPLE

HELEN COLLIS

11:00 - 09 June 2007

A rook hand-reared by a couple has made itself so at home in the family nest that it happily chats away to them - and even sips their scotch.While other birds of a feather scrabble around for worms and huddle together in tree tops, Jackie the pet rook has the run of the roost at the home of Peter Thornhill and his wife Kay and has amazed the couple by dipping its beak into Peter's favourite tipple.

The couple discovered the bird's penchant for Scotland's finest malt only days after they rescued it, found abandoned as a fledgling.

Now the rook, one of Britain's most common wild birds which are entrenched in British folklore, loves to cosey up in front of the television as it perches on Peter's armchair, taking in a sip or two of his tipple.

Peter said he was "amazed" when rescued Jackie first dipped her beak into his drink, only days after being rescued three years ago. But she has done so every night since.

It all became clear when an expert revealed she was using the alcohol to clean her of bugs and mites.

She meticulously pokes her scotch-covered bill into all of her feathers, pouring the whisky over her plume.

"Sometimes she ends up looking soaking wet," said Peter.

Three-year-old Jackie was rescued by the couple, from Buckfastleigh, South Devon, after she was found underneath the steps of a neighbouring football pavilion, only days old, and struggling to survive.

Hand reared by the bird-lovers, she became another member of the family.

Jackie is not the only rook to display almost human-like behaviour.

Rooks in Exeter surprised onlookers at a train station when they appeared to be picking up discarded cigarettes and smoking them.

But it turned out the birds were actually using the smoke to fumigate any bugs from their wings.

But domesticated Jackie has learnt her own trick.

Peter said: "She is clearly concerned about mites and it must be built into their genes from her ancestors that there are certain chemicals that will keep them clean.

"Jackie has no mites or bugs as she is kept in our house and she is very clean as she has a bath every day."

Peter thinks Jackie was about three weeks old when they found her and she has been kept indoors ever since. She has picked up quite a vocabulary too. She often says "good morning", "good girl" or "good boy" while she is wandering around.

Jackie is not the only bird in the house. The couple have three parrots which treat Jackie as if she was a sibling.

"It's great fun with the other birds," said Peter.

"If I put a piece of paper on the floor the parrots will tear it up into little pieces. And Jackie will run around picking all the pieces up. Usually she comes over and puts them on my lap."

And she is quite possibly the only rook in the country to have medical insurance.

Peter said: "We've got medical insurance for the parrots and we tried for three years to get insurance for Jackie, but the company kept turning us down. Finally this year they have given in and Jackie is fully insured."

"Every night we sit in front of the TV and she sits on my lap with me. I'll have a drop of scotch and she will help herself to it. She meticulously spreads it all over her wings. It's amazing. She has no idea how to get rid of mites since she's always lived with us. It's definitely something in the genes."

http://tinyurl.com/2gsx6u

 

[GNC]

I had a budgie that drank sherry if you weren't careful, no plumage cleaning about it. He just wanted to get drunk, I suppose.

 

[rynner2]

Cleverest crows opt for two tools
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

Crows have shown that two tools are better than one when it comes to problem solving, scientists say.

A University of Auckland study has revealed that New Caledonian crows can use separate tools in quick succession to retrieve an out-of-reach snack.

The birds were using reasoning that was more commonly seen in great apes and humans, the New Zealand team reported in the journal Current Biology.

New Caledonian crows are renowned for their tool-making ability.

The birds (Corvus moneduloides), which are found on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, use their bills to whittle twigs into hooks and cut and tear leaves into barbed probes that can extract bugs and grubs from crevices.

Tasty treats

To further test the crows' tool-using talents, scientists set seven wild birds a tricky task.

The crows were presented with:

A scrap of meat, which was tucked away, out of reach, in a box;
A small twig, which was too short to reach the food;
And another longer twig, which was long enough to reach the food, but was locked away well out of bill-grabbing range in another box.
The birds surprised the scientists with their quick thinking.

Alex Taylor, lead author of the paper, said: "The creative thing the crows did was to use the short stick to get the long tool out of the box so that they could then use the long stick to get the meat."

Russell Gray, another author of the paper, told the BBC News website: "What is most amazing is that most of them did this on the first trial.

"The first time we gave them the problem, six out of seven tried to do the right thing.

"They took the little tool and they tried to get the big tool out, which we had made quite hard to reach, and four out of the six managed to get the big tool out and then use this to get to the food."

In another experiment, the positions of the long and short twigs were reversed.

The team found that all apart from one crow briefly attempted to use the long twig to try to retrieve the short twig from box before quickly correcting their mistake and using the long twig to directly access the food.

The scientists said the crows' performance was comparable to that of the great apes in similar experiments.

Human-like reasoning

The team believes that because the birds were able to solve the problem on their first attempt they were using analogical reasoning rather than trial and error.

Analogical reasoning is the process of solving a problem using experience gained from solving related previous problems.

Professor Gray said: "The birds were making an analogy: instead of using a tool to get food they used the tool to get another tool to get the food."

This kind of reasoning, added Professor Gray, was commonly seen in humans and possibly in great apes.

"It might explain why the New Caledonian crows - out of all the crow species in the world - only these crows routinely make and use tools," he said.

"It is just a puzzle why this one species on this island in the middle of the South Pacific can do this amazing thing - and we don't really know the answer to this."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6948446.stm

 

[rynner2]

RIP Alex, the parrot that learnt to count and communicate
By Andrew Gumbel in Los angeles
Published: 12 September 2007

Alex the parrot could do a lot of things. He could count to six, and was working on counting to seven. He could name 50 objects, seven colours and five shapes. Scientists who kept him in a lab at Brandeis University near Boston, said he had the emotional maturity of a two-year-old child – they meant that as a compliment – and the intellectual capabilities of a five-year-old. He was, in short, no bird-brain.

But Alex is no more. The 31-year-old African grey, one of the great treasures of US scientific research, has joined the squawking choir invisible. Last Thursday, his chief keeper, avian researcher Irene Pepperberg, said goodnight to him as always. "You be good, I love you," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow." Alex responded: "You'll be in tomorrow."

But next morning he was dead in his 2ft by 3ft cage. A veterinarian who cut short her holiday so she could examine him found nothing obviously wrong.

The news was not released immediately because Dr Pepperberg and her fellow researchers needed to absorb the shock and recover enough equanimity to speak publicly about their loss.

Alex's chief contribution to avian science was to shatter the notion that parrots can only mimic human speech. Over 30 years of research, Dr Pepperberg showed he was capable of understanding and using English on his own initiative. He learnt to use phrases along the lines of, "I want X" or "I wanna go Y", and clearly meant them to express genuine desires. He grasped the concept of certain categories, including bigger and smaller, or same and different, or present and absent.

Brandeis said in a statement marking his passing: "Alex combined his labels to identify, request, refuse, and categorise more than 100 different items, demonstrating a level and scope of cognitive abilities never expected in an avian species."

That's quite an achievement for a bird picked at random from a pet shop in 1977. Dr Pepperberg had trained as a theoretical chemist at Harvard, but became fascinated by advanced forms of communication in animals, be they chimps using sign language, birds singing, or dolphins using sonar.

Gradually, she narrowed her focus to the avian brain and set up a project she called the Avian Learning Experiment, or Alex. So she named her new feathered friend Alex, and started teaching him. She and her research assistants were with him every day, using a method called rival-model technique to spur him to expand his knowledge base little by little. A similar technique has since been used to help children with learning disabilities.

Alex was learning till the end, getting his head around the number seven and forming new words from combinations of sounds he had already mastered. He also enjoyed lording it over two younger African greys in the lab – 12-year-old Griffin and eight-year-old Arthur – telling them to "talk better" when they mumbled their words. "He was so extraordinary in breaking the perceptions of birds as not being intelligent," Dr Pepperberg said. "It's devastating to lose an individual you've worked with every day for 30 years."

Alex's prowess had its precedents. A century ago, the Cheshire Cheese pub on Fleet Street in London had an eccentric parrot called Polly. On Armistice Night 1918, Polly imitated the popping of champagne corks about 400 times then fainted from exhaustion. When she died in 1926, her obituary appeared in 200 newspapers.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ame ... 953455.ece

 

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Clever crows are caught on camera
Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

Miniature cameras have given scientists a rare glimpse into how New Caledonian crows behave in the wild.

The birds are renowned for their sophisticated tool-using ability, but until now, observing them in their natural habitat has proven difficult.

But specially designed "crow-cams" fitted to the birds' tails have shed light on the creatures, recording some tool-use never seen before.

The research is reported in the journal Science.

New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are found on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia.

They can use their bills to whittle twigs and leaves into bug-grabbing implements; some believe their tool-use is so advanced that it rivals that of some primates.

But while these clever crows have been extensively studied in captivity, looking at their natural behaviour in the wild is tricky.

Christian Rutz, lead author of the paper from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, UK, said: "These birds are notoriously difficult to study in the wild.

"They are very sensitive to human disturbance and the terrain in New Caledonia is very mountainous and forested, so it is difficult to follow the birds."

So the team came up with another approach.

"Why not just stick a camera to a crow, hitch a ride with it, and get a crow's-eye view of what is going on?" Dr Rutz said.

Recent advances in mobile phone technology enabled the researchers to construct a camera that was small enough to attach to a crow's tail without impairing its movements.

They attached the 14g (0.5oz) units - which also contained a radio tag to transmit location coordinates - to the tail feathers of 18 New Caledonian crows.

The footage, broadcasted to the researchers' custom-built receivers, provided the team with a unique insight into the crows' behaviour - including some that had never been seen before.

Dr Rutz told the BBC News website: "Before, we thought the crows targeted their tool use at fallen dead trees where they probe for grubs; but now we have observed them using tools on the ground - and that has never been seen before.

"We also filmed them doing this using a new type of tool, which was very surprising. We found them using grass stems - and that is interesting because these stems have very different physical properties from the sticks and leaves that we knew they use.

"They are using the grass stems on the forest floor, probing the leaf litter, possibly fishing for ants."

Big juicy grubs

The team is using its video footage to investigate why New Caledonian crows might have evolved their tool-using abilities. This species of crow is the only non-primate animal known to create and use new tools.

Dr Rutz said: "What were the ecological circumstances on this one particular island in the South Pacific that could have fostered the evolution of this behaviour?"

One idea, he said, was that the behaviour may have evolved in response to food shortages.

"When we compared situations when the crows did and didn't use tools, we found two pieces of supporting evidence for this," Dr Rutz said.

"Firstly, the prey encounter rate was surprisingly small: for one hour of ground foraging a crow would only pick up eight tiny morsels of food - a blackbird in a garden would be taking up that many items a minute. That shows maybe foraging without tools is indeed challenging in this habitat.

"Secondly, when you compare the size of the food items they get with and without tools - when they don't use tools, the food items are very, very small indeed compared with the food items they extract with the tools. This again suggests maybe they need to use tools to gain access to this rich hidden food resource."

The team says its video tracking technique could be used to study other wild birds that are shy or live in inaccessible habitats.

Dr Rutz added: "This technology could really change the way we study wild birds."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7027923.stm

 

[rynner2]

...and at the other end of the spectrum we have this: -

Peacock 'fell in love with car'

Visitors to a Somerset stately home have been warned to keep away from a peacock - after he seriously damaged a luxury car he mistook for a mate.

The amorous bird caused £4,000 worth of damage to an employee's Lexus in the grounds of Sir Benjamin Slade's country manor, Maunsel House, near Bridgwater.

Warning signs have now been put up in the car park.

"It started when he fell in love with a Lexus, which was in a very distinct peacock blue," said Sir Benjamin.

"He attacked the panels so hard that the car needs a total respray. The insurers are not very happy about it.

"They've had claims for all sorts of things like lions biting people, but never have they heard of a peacock sexually attacking a car before," he added. 8)

Sir Benjamin has offered to give away his 13th Century ancestral home to anyone distantly related to him.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7028723.stm

 

[rynner2]

Wild side makes parrot speechless

A parrot who never stopped chattering lost his voice after four days' freedom in the wilds of Cambridgeshire.
Harley, an African Grey, used to call his owners "Mum" and "Dad", could recite his telephone number and was never lost for words.

But after four days in the wild he appears to have lost his tongue and has returned traumatised, skinny and mute.

Owner Cedric Tunnel, 66, of Littleport, said: "Wild birds bully him and won't let him get to any food."

Found on BMW

Harley, eight, made a bid for freedom by flying through an open door.

"Harley was perched on my back but I'd forgotten he was there," said Mr Tunnel. "When I opened a door to a guest he flew off."

Mr Tunnel scoured the local area looking for Harley with his wife Margaret, 65. The pair put up lost posters showing their beloved bird in a bid to track him down.

Their hard work was rewarded when Harley was finally found perched on a BMW.

The car's owner recognised Harley from the posters and alerted the couple.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/camb ... 208610.stm

Let's hope he soon gets over his trauma and starts chattering again!

 

[rynner2]

Rooks team up to solve problems
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
Pairs of rooks can co-operate to solve problems, scientists report.

An experiment revealed that the rooks would team up so they could reach a tray of food that was inaccessible to lone birds.

The researchers from the University of Cambridge were surprised to find that the birds performed as well as chimpanzees at the test.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers presented pairs of captive birds with a tray topped with tasty morsels of egg yolk and mealworm - however, it was placed just out of reach, outside of the birds' cage.

A single piece of string was threaded through two hooks on the tray, with each end left dangling 60cm (24in) apart, just inside the rooks' enclosure.

Psychologist Amanda Seed, the lead author of the paper, who is now based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said: "If just one bird pulled on one end of the string, it would slip out from the loops.

"The question was would they work out, without any training, that they needed one bird to pull on one end of the string and another to pull on the other, simultaneously, to get to the food?"

The team, including Nicola Clayton and Nathan Emery, discovered that the eight pairs were happy to cooperate, with some pairs solving the task straight away, others taking a day or two to work out that team-work was the key to getting their nibbles.

Dr Seed told the BBC News website: "They performed remarkably well - as well as chimps when they were presented with the same test."

The team then gave the rooks another trial.

This time a single rook was presented with the same tray-string set-up, while its pair waited in a neighbouring cage linked by a one-way flap.

The idea was to see whether the rook would wait for the other rook to enter the enclosure so they could once again work together to reach the food.

Dr Seed said: "We found the birds just didn't wait."

The researchers believe that while rooks had the ability to cooperate, they may have failed to understand the importance and value of the act.

Dr Seed said: "The results suggest the rooks weren't using information about the efficacy of the partner: the need for the partner to solve that task."

However, chimps, when presented with the same scenario were happy to wait and team-up.

Dr Seed explained: "In terms of the cognitive mechanisms underpinning co-operation, there may be a difference between rooks and chimps.

"This could be because social groups of rooks and chimpanzees are structured differently.

"Chimpanzee society is a dynamic mix of cooperative and competitive relationships, whilst rook groups seem to be more stable."

Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) are members of the crow family. They live in colonies and form monogamous relationships for life.

The researchers are now keen to find out if other species of birds perform his kind of co-operative behaviour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7322113.stm

 

[rynner2]

Hunt for amorous parrot's owner

The RSPCA is looking for the owner of a talkative parrot that likes to say "I love you" and "give us a kiss".

The stray male African grey was found perched in a tree in Gunness, near Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, on Wednesday, said the animal charity.

Animal collection officer Tim Stoodley has taken the parrot in while he searches for its owner.

He said the bird slides along his arm and says "hello" and has a tendency to bite him and then say "ouch".

Mr Stoodley said: "Luckily I have a parrot cage and food, so he can stay with me for the time being.

"I'm sure he must have an owner who is missing him, as he is extremely friendly and has obviously been well cared for and taught to speak.

"He always gives me a good morning and a goodnight. He also says 'give us a kiss' and makes kissing noises."

It is thought the parrot must belong to someone in the Gunness or Scunthorpe area as it is unlikely to have flown much further.

And Mr Stoodley believes the owner could be a woman.

"It's got quite a feminine voice and it likes my girlfriend, but hates me," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7550429.stm

 

[rynner2]

Magpies reflect on a newly discovered intellectual prowess
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Tuesday, 19 August 2008

They may have a brain the size of a pea but magpies have been shown to possess the intellectual prowess necessary to recognise themselves in a mirror – a feat that, until now, has only been seen in humans, apes, elephants and dolphins.


Self-recognition is considered to be one of the hallmarks of a highly evolved brain so it has come as a surprise to find that the magpie can see its own reflection for what it is. A study has shown that magpies can recognise themselves in a mirror as well as any chimpanzee, despite being separated from the mammals and their highly developed brain by some 300 million years of evolutionary history.

The findings may come as no surprise to anyone who has watched a magpie's seemingly sly and arrogant behaviour in the garden, where they frequently raid the nests of smaller birds and are infamous "thieves" that steal shiny objects to adorn their own nests.

Helmut Prior, of Goethe University in Frankfurt, said the findings demonstrate that the ability to recognise a reflection as yourself, rather than seeing it as another individual, does not necessarily depend on the sophisticated mammalian brain. "Our findings provide the first evidence of mirror self-recognition in a non-mammalian species," he said. "They suggest that essential components of human self-recognition have evolved independently in different vertebrate classes with a separate evolutionary history."

Dr Prior and colleagues from Ruhr-University Bochum tested the magpie's self-discriminatory powers in experiments involving five magpies marked with coloured dots on their throats, which could only be seen by looking at their own reflection.

Two of the magpies – named Gertie and Goldie – quickly learnt that the image they could see in a mirror placed in their cages was of themselves and tried to dislodge the coloured dots they could see on their throat feathers.

The "mark test" is frequently used as an indicator of self-recognition in animals and young children as, if done properly, there is only one way the individual can see that the mark is on themselves rather than someone else.

"A crucial step in the emergence of self-recognition is the understanding that one's own mirror reflection does not represent another individual but oneself," said Dr Prior, whose study is published in the online journal Public Library of Science (PLos) Biology. "Mirror self-recognition has been shown in apes and, recently, in dolphins and elephants ... Using the mark test we obtained evidence for mirror self-recognition in the European magpie, Pica pica. This finding shows that elaborate cognitive skills arose independently in corvids [the crow family] and primates, taxonomic groups with an evolutionary history that diverged about 300 million years ago."

Other scientists have already shown that some crows show exceptional intellectual skills, such as using and making simple tools that are used for food foraging.

The relative intelligence of magpies has traditionally presented a problem to gamekeepers and conservationists seeking to control their numbers. Their wariness makes them difficult to shoot, so the most widely used form of population control is a larsen trap, which is baited with a magpie from outside a bird's normal social circle. Dr Prior added: "In addition to showing social understanding during competition for food, magpies are curious and prone to approach new situations, making them ideally suited for an experiment that requires spontaneous interaction with a new and puzzling context."

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 01857.html

 

[rynner2]

Birds of a feather drink together: The three clever pigeons who help each other sup from a water fountain
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 12:18 AM on 15th August 2009

They obviously have a better class of pigeon Down Under.

Instead of pecking around on the filthy pavements among cigarette butts and chewing gum, they prefer to sip filtered water and go to great lengths for a bath.

The trio pictured here, in Brisbane, Queensland, appear to have worked out a clever system of adapting the water fountain built by humans for their own pigeon purposes.

After waiting for the fountain to be free, one bird jumped on the lever and pushed it down to fill up the bowl, while another kept watch and the third splashed in.

When it had drunk its fill and cleaned its feathers, the third pigeon hopped up to the handle and let his friends have a go.

The three birds continued their bathing ritual for ten minutes, entertaining passers-by in Post Office Square, in Brisbane's bustling business district.

Unlike other birds, who take a sip of water and throw back their heads to swallow, pigeons suck up water using their beaks like straws.

Though they aren't very popular in this part of the world and are referred to as rats of the sky,

Pigeons - even the English ones - are considered among the most intelligent of all the bird species.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0OF1SMhRQ

 

[rynner2]

Our bird brain is nothing to crow about
Wild NotebookSimon Barnes

In one of Aesop’s fables, a thirsty crow is unable to reach the water in a jug. He tries to push the jug over, but fails. So he drops stones into the jug until the water level rises high enough for him to take his drink. Thus we are shown that thoughtfulness is superior to brute strength. It is not, then, a story about crows. It is a story about humans. You wouldn’t get a real crow behaving like that, now would you?

So I went to Madingley in Cambridgeshire to meet a lot of crows and a professor. The professor danced as she walked and wore heels like pencils. The crows were still more unexpected. Float a mealworm on the water — the crows in question are mad for them — but make sure the container is too deep for the worm to be beaked and gobbled. Guess what the crows do.

They don’t only perform Aesop’s trick with the stones. They have moved beyond it. If you offer them a choice between a bright yellow stone and an identical bright yellow bit of foam, they unhesitatingly choose the stone every time, knowing that the foam will float, and will impede rather than aid any attempt to get the worm.

In every test they have faced, these crows have shown themselves to be as cool, as logical and as intelligent as chimpanzees. And there to show me all this was Nicky Clayton, tango dancer, scientific adviser to the Rambert Dance Company and professor of comparative cognition at Cambridge University.

She works with jays, scrub-jays (you find them in California) and rooks, and has discovered intelligence of a kind and a depth that everybody thought was restricted to humans and their nearest relations. These crows have shown intelligence that can be compared to that of a four-year-old child.

It has been assumed that only humans are capable of planning for the future and reminiscing about the past. It has been assumed that only humans are capable of understanding minds other than their own. It has been assumed that only humans can learn through memory. These assumptions have been meticulously dismantled at Madingley in a series of elegant and effective demonstrations, elegance and effectiveness being the most obvious things about Professor Clayton.

Jays love to hide stuff, acorns in particular. They don’t do this at random. They remember; they carry maps in their heads. And when they have something to cache and they know they are being watched by another jay, they will fake it: they will pretend to cache, then hide the acorn elsewhere. Jays, like humans, deceive.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 017150.ece

 

[rynner2]

More clever crows:

Clever New Caledonian crows can use three tools
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

New Caledonian crows have given scientists yet another display of their tool-using prowess.

Scientists from New Zealand's University of Auckland have found that the birds are able to use three tools in succession to reach some food.

The crows, which use tools in the wild, have also shown other problem-solving behaviour, but this find suggests they are more innovative than was thought.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The team headed to the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, the home of Corvus moneduloides.

They are the only birds known to craft and use tools in the wild.

The discovery that they whittle branches into hooks and tear leaves into barbed probes to extract food from hard-to-reach nooks astounded scientists, who had previously thought that ability to fashion tools was unique to primates.

And further research in the laboratory and the field has revealed that New Caledonian crows are also innovative problem solvers, often rivalling primates. Experiments have shown that the birds can craft new tools out of unfamiliar materials, as well as use a number of tools in succession.

To further understand how the birds perform these tasks, the University of Auckland team set seven wild crows, which had temporarily been captured and placed in an aviary, a complicated problem.

The birds were presented with some out-of reach food; a long tool, which could be used to extract the food, but which was also out of reach, tucked behind the bars of a box; and a short tool, which could be used to extract the long tool, but which was attached to the end of a dangling piece of string tied to the crow's perch.

Professor Russell Gray, from the University of Auckland, explained: "The crows needed to understand they needed the short tool on the piece of string to get the long tool, and then use the long tool to get the food."

The seven birds were split into two groups.

The first group of birds were given the chance to try out every individual step in the set-up, before they were presented with the complete multi-stage task.

Professor Gray said: "All these birds had to do was to put together things they could already do in the right sequence."

Each of the three birds managed to solve the three-stage problem on their first attempt.

A second group of birds was presented with a less familiar situation.

While they had previously been shown tasks where food was directly attached to string, and sticks could be used to grab out of reach food, they had never been given a situation where a tool was linked to the string or where one tool was needed to collect a second tool.

However, when presented with the multi-stage task, these birds also managed to reach their treat.

One bird, Sam, spent 110 seconds inspecting the apparatus before completing each of the steps without any mistakes. Another bird, Casper, also completed on his first try, although he was initially puzzled by the string.

The other two birds solved the problem on their third and fourth attempts.

Alex Taylor, the lead author of the paper, said: "Finding that the crows could solve the problem even when they had to innovate two behaviours was incredibly surprising."

The researchers say that the experiments are helping to shed light on how the crows are carrying out these complicated tasks.

Dr Taylor said that while using or creating a single tool could be underpinned by simple learning processes, solving a set of linked problems, suggested that the basis for their innovation is much more complex.

etc...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8631486.stm

 

[rynner2]

Fancy a Marlboro flight? The crows caught taking a crafty cigarette break on holiday island
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:19 AM on 19th May 2010

It's been a long, hard day scrounging for food, so who can blame these crows for a bit of me time on top of the roof of a holiday cottage in the Maldives.
But this pair have found rather more than a piece of toast to nibble on as they watch the world go by, instead opting for a packet of cigarettes they had snatched off a table below.

These remarkable pictures were taken by holidaying British couple Tony and Judie Ellis, who watched in amazement as a crow landed on the roof of a water villa next to theirs and calmly began extracting the cigarettes from the packet.

As Judie, 53, rushed to get her camera to record the scene two more crows arrived for a fag break and picked up the cigarettes in their beaks.
She said: 'The crow which flew past with the cigarettes seemed to be dishing them out to the others.
'It was taking the cigarettes out of the packet and putting them on the roof of the water villa. Then the other crows were picking them up.

'It was amazing that they seemed to have them in their beaks the right way round.'

The couple, who work as toy inventors, were told after the incident that crows can sometimes be a bit of a nuisance on the islands. They were told that another holidaymaker had a sandwich stolen by a cheeky crow.
Judie said : 'We have been to the Maldives four times before but never seen any sort of crow behaviour like that. I was lucky to be able to record this on my camera.'

And where do Mr and Mrs Ellis live? Crowborough in East Sussex, of course.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0oMnbkRTh

Very strange! Were they just playing, I wonder.

 

[rynner2]

Birds turn up their beaks at organic seed
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:23 AM on 19th May 2010

It's meant to be the most environmentally-friendly bird food that money can buy.
Free from pesticides, preservatives and chemical fertilisers, organic bird seed is scattered by those who don't mind paying a little extra to stay green.
There's just one snag. Birds don't like it.
The first scientific study of its kind found they prefer conventional bird seed - grown on intensive farms and doused with chemicals - to the more expensive and 'natural' organic varieties.

Researchers who made the discovery at Newcastle University believe conventional bird food is higher in protein than the organic stuff - and that the birds are voting with their beaks.
Dr Ailsa McKenzie, who led the study, said: 'Protein is an essential nutrient in the diet of all birds and mammals and getting enough of it - especially in winter - can be hard.
'We showed that when given free choice, wild birds opt for the conventional food over the organic, and the most likely explanation is its higher protein content.'

The Newcastle team set up feeding stations in more than 30 gardens across the North of England.
Organic and non-organic wheat seeds were placed in adjacent bird feeders and monitored for six weeks over winter.

Halfway through the experiment the feeds were swapped around. The experiment was repeated in a second winter using different wheat samples.
Over the study, the birds ate far more of the conventional seed than the organic seed, the team reported in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

When the feeders were swapped round, the birds quickly spotted the difference, and continued to shun the organic food.
An analysis of the wheat revealed that conventional seeds had 10 per cent more protein than the organic ones.
The researchers found no difference in the size of grains, energy content or pesticide residues.
The garden bird work was confirmed by laboratory studies on canaries, which also preferred conventional seeds to organic grains.

It's the second blow to the organic industry in weeks.
Earlier this month, a Leeds University study found that some of Britain's best loved songbirds, including skylarks and yellowhammers, fare worse on organic farms than on fields sprayed with chemicals.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0oMtxPxyr

It's enough to make a Green turn puce!