Subject: Re: bird brains
Date: Jun 28 11:30:38 1995
From: Herb Curl - h.curl at hazmat.noaa.gov


Starlings are tough birds but no smarter than most. My favorite examples of
the bird brain in action are chickens trying to get to food when there's a
fence in the way, even if the fence is only five feet long and they could
walk around it at either end, and a tom turkey that could easily have
flown over a fence to get to a hen, but could only walk back and forth and
gobble in frustration (ecstacy?). Species don't have to be any smarter
than they need to be for survival so my question is: why have some species
evolved smarts that they use for play, building destructive devices, or
figuring out that there might be a hole in a fence? Are some bird
*families* smarter than others: e.g., corvids vs phasianids ?

Herb Curl
Seattle WA

h.curl at hazmat.noaa.gov "You may be only young once but you can be
Hazmat/NOAA, 7600 Sand Pt. Wy., NE immature the rest of your life."
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