By Amber Prinkey
Although their brains are tiny, birds make good use of what space they have with plenty of neurons. With some birds being able to migrate and return to the exact same area next year, they’re showing us they are smarter than we think. Check out these smarty bird facts:
Many bird species can plan for the future by caching food (saving it for later).
Crows and mockingbirds have been shown to recognize faces and are more comfortable with those they have interacted positively with as opposed to a stranger.
Crows not only make tools but can also curve a tool into a hook for better food gathering.
Green herons also use tools. They’ll find a piece of food, place it on the water, fish will come to the food, then they eat the fish.
Crows will group together to mob predators, using strength in numbers.
Studies show ravens can plan for tasks, a trait we thought only humans could accomplish!
Ever thought you heard a hawk only to look and see an innocent little Blue Jay? They mimic these fearsome predators to scare the competition away from food!
Some birds like gulls and crows will drop hard-shelled food items on the ground so they break and they can eat what’s inside.
More than 200 species of birds have performed “anting,” the act of rubbing ants on their skin and feathers to “clean” themselves with the ant’s chemicals.
Some species of parrots may develop a vocabulary of over 1,000 words!
Wild turkeys have a technique where they line up side by side to walk across fields to flush out more insects.
Even Great- Tailed Grackles (a close relative of our own Boat-Tailed Grackles) have shown to be more intelligent than previously thought. A study showed they have behavioral flexibility, the ability to change preferences with changing circumstances. This means they will alter the way they do things if another way is better than the way they previously did it.
So now we know birds are smart, but they still make mistakes. Here at Sawgrass Nature Center, we regularly get calls about birds who have flown into windows. How can you avoid this at your home? Putting a few stickers or window clings on your windows will alert birds to the window and help them avoid it.
A non-releasable blue jay sits on a branch in our Aviary