Birds are more like humans than many realize: they are bipedal, they rely primarily on sight and hearing, and most are monogamous. And they’re smart. When compared to dogs and cats in experiment testing on the ability to seek food, corvids (jays, crows, rooks, jackdaws, and ravens) out-performed mammals. The brain-to-body weight ratios of certain birds are equal to that of great apes and cetaceans and only slightly lower than humans.
Dr. Irene Pepperberg’s (Harvard University) research with African Grey parrots scientifically demonstrated they possess the ability to associate human words with meanings, apply the abstract concepts of color and shape, and perform cognitive tasks at the level of dolphins, chimpanzees, and human toddlers.
The Clarke’s nutcracker collects up to 30,000 pine seeds, buries them across 200 square miles and succeeds in retrieving over 90 percent of them even when covered in snow. New Caledonian crows make tools of twigs they trim into hooks to pull larva from tree holes. Kea can solve logical puzzles and will work together to achieve a certain object and European magpies have shown to be able to pass the mirror test of self-awareness by trying to remove a sticker from their body.
Avian intelligence is represented through their feeding skills, use of tools, memorization abilities and group behavior and provides insight into the intelligence of bird species.