Jennifer Ackerman: “Some birds’ mental abilities far exceed ours” | Culture

The book is full of years of research, a respectful and poetic look at the world of birds. On this occasion, the author and I talk about the surprising intelligence of birds and the newly opening horizons of research.

– What was the biggest challenge in writing “Genial Birds”?

– I like to write about science the most – to translate complex scientific subjects into a language that people can understand. To make them not only accessible, but also intriguing and interesting. The biggest challenge of this book was to translate the science of bird brain anatomy, their nervous system, animal cognition research and experimental bird study methods into a lively and engaging narrative for readers.

Martin Pescador nuotr./Jennifer Ackerman

– What are the most striking examples of bird intelligence that you came across while working on this book?

– A first example would be the problem-solving ability of birds like New Caledonian crows and their tool-making skills. This bird can think at the same level as a small child and understand basic principles of physics such as cause and effect. And it can make tools as complex as those made by great primates like chimpanzees and orangutans. In fact, New Caledonian crows are the only species other than humans to make and use hook tools.

These are complex tools with small hooks that birds use to extract larvae and insects from holes in trees. One crow, named 007 after the James Bond spy character, was so clever that it solved an eight-step puzzle that required using one tool to get another tool, and then using it to get another tool, all of which the bird accomplished in just more than two minutes!

In addition, birds such as the African gray parrot are known for their intellectual abilities. It was an African gray parrot named Alex who, in collaboration with Harvard University researcher Irene Pepperberg, showed how intelligent these birds can be. Alex could recognize and name colors, shapes and numbers. He could do basic math.

He understood abstract ideas such as the concept of zero. He could understand the meaning of hundreds of words and use them meaningfully himself. For example, Pepperberg could show Alex a large tray full of different colored objects and ask, “Alex, how many red objects are there?” And Alex would correctly answer: “4”. She could also ask him what something was made of. He would pick it up in his beak and feel it with his tongue, and then give the correct answer, for example: “wood”.

We usually think of parrots as simply being able to imitate our speech: “Polly wants a cracker,” but Alex’s use of language goes far beyond simple imitation.

– How has your attitude towards birds changed since you wrote “Genius Birds”?

– Writing this book was like buying new binoculars. It completely changed my perspective on birds. Now I look at them and their behavior and ask myself: What are you thinking? what do you feel

Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned while working on this book is how much we have underestimated the minds and mental capacities of birds. They are capable of much more intelligent behavior than we ever imagined. Birds have remarkable abilities to solve the problems they face, whether they are ecological problems like where to nest, how to find year-round food sources, how to find their way to wintering or breeding grounds, or social problems like how to get along in a group or raise your social status.

In the course of evolution, birds have coped very well with these problems. In addition, they developed amazing mental skills: the ability to make and use complex tools, orient themselves, use complex language similar to communication, and even transmit cultural traditions such as songs or tool-making styles.

Some birds’ mental abilities far exceed ours. I think about the navigational skills of migrating birds. Or the insanely impressive spatial memory skills of birds like the American nuthatch, which can bury up to 30,000 pine seeds in thousands of locations over tens of square miles and remember their hiding places months later, even though the landscape may have changed dramatically due to snow, leaves, or shifting rocks and soil.

Nuts go straight to their individual hiding places. Or the red hummingbird, which can remember not only the location of a particular flower on which it fed in a vast field of flowers, but also that when fed on that particular flower, and returns to it only when the flower has time to fill with nectar. This information about where and when they ate, the bird stores only in a brain the size of a grain of rice. And I can’t even remember where I put my keys!

– Do you have any favorite bird species?

– I really like the North American black-headed tit, a close relative of the European tit, partly because they are so bold and brash. Once, a blackhead landed on my arm and snatched away the sandwich I was holding. But they are also loved because they are highly intelligent and communicate in ways that resemble language. According to scientists, the sounds made by blackheads are one of the most complex and precise communication systems of land animals. Like other birds, black-headed tit uses certain sounds to communicate with a mate or signal a nearby food source.

But the extraordinary, speech-like sounds they make are what they use to warn off predators. We used to think that a bird’s warning call said one simple thing: “Danger!” But blackheads are shattering our old understanding of how much information birds can convey with their chirps. The warning calls of blackbirds indicate the type of predator – whether it is coming from the air or from the ground – and the magnitude of the threat it poses.

– How do you think the field of ornithology will change in the next decade?

– I am very happy that diversity is increasing in the field of ornithology – women, researchers of different races, scientists from the Southern hemisphere. Diversity brings fresh perspectives and new questions. I think we will be greatly shaken by future discoveries that will change our current view of birds.