Corvid Cognition
By Tami Winchell
MOSS FIELD NOTE #4
A Common Raven (Corvid corax) standing in a field of frosted grass. Photo by Piotr Krzeslak.
Who was the originator of the insult, “Bird Brain?” Because as it turns out, the jokes on them. Even with their smaller brain size, some birds are among the most intelligent of all animals. The ‘bigger the brain, the higher the intelligence’ theory doesn’t hold true when it comes to our feathered friends. They may be small, but bird brains are highly efficient with densely packed cells. For this reason, some bird species have just as many neurons (and therefore similar processing speeds and intelligence levels) as that of medium-sized primates even, like chimpanzees and monkeys. Birds have accomplished lighter weight for flight with adaptations such as hollow bones and omitting a bladder. But they generally have not gone skimpy on brain size or power. In fact, many birds’ brains are relatively substantial in size and weight compared to that of their body. No other birds demonstrate this better than corvids who have remarkable brain to body size ratios, similar to that of the chimpanzee, and are recognized as one of the most intelligent groups of animals, on par with the celebrated dolphins, apes, and elephants (Taylor, 2014).
So who are these flying little Einsteins? Corvids are a group of birds belonging to the Corvidae family, which is sometimes referred to as the crow family, that includes crows, jays, magpies, and ravens, to name a few.
They are rather late bloomers in that they are dependent on their parents for a relatively long time, but this grants them the opportunity to learn a lot from their parents and peers (Clayton, N. and Emery, N.). This, together with their dense neuron structure and intellect shown in growing studies essentially proves that these “bird brains” are not deserving of their mockery.
Let’s explore this further and discuss select aspects of their sophisticated cognition. Plus, highlight some specific attributes of the family member, the magpie. A crowd favorite, due to their fortunate possession of both brains and beauty, a natural attraction for us humans.
Innovation
Commonly used as a marker for intellect, tool making is a behavior that nearly all mammals lack and has long been used to separate humans from all other animals. Yet, corvids are known to have sophisticated foraging innovations utilizing tools. One example is New Caledonian crows who are the only species aside from humans who craft hook tools. (Taylor, 2014.) Similarly, ravens have even been touted as being more intelligent than humans, in some ways, because not only do they collect food with handmade tools, like the crows, but they plan for their future and barter for resources (Kabadayi, Can, and Mathis, 2017). Notably, they display the ability to delay instant gratification and exercise self-control. In one study, ravens were not only able to select the appropriate tool needed to open a box of food, but they chose to forgo a smaller food reward without work and wait for the larger reward later in the box that they had to work to open.
Play
A complex social behavior, play has been shown in a recent study to be related to brain size and therefore the number of neurons and complexity of cognition (Kaplan, 2020). A clear difference in relative brain mass is shown to occur in birds who play compared to those that don’t, especially those who play with others (Kaplan, 2022). The more they play, the bigger their brain.
What is bird play? Solo play may involve behaviors like skipping, jumping, rolling, hanging, swinging, or even dancing, and is the most common form of play and popular with the magpies. Object play involves things like carrying sticks or stones, dropping them, picking them up, and running with them. Social play with others is the rarest form, and published observances are mostly limited to parrots and corvids, particularly magpies and ravens. Examples of social play include a game of chase and keep away.
Play occurs usually among juveniles, but sometimes it extends into adulthood. Those species who tend to have a long juvenile period, like corvids, experience more play behaviors (Kaplan, 2022).
Self-awareness
Just like apes, elephants, and dolphins, research suggests that magpies have uncommon self-awareness. For example, one study showed a large portion of the tested magpies were able to identify that a reflection in a mirror was their own, and when a red dot was placed on their chest, they noticed something was different and attempted to remove it (Taylor, 2014). Once successful, they were satisfied and the behavior stopped (Taylor, 2014).
Developed Hippocampus
A hippocampus is a complex brain structure in many mammals that plays a major role in learning and memory and is shown to be relatively large in birds, sitting like a cap on top of their brain. In a study on 10 black-billed magpies, remarkable learning and memory was demonstrated. They were shown a series of pictures, each followed by comparison pictures. For each comparison photo they were slowly trained to peck the picture if it matched, or peck a white rectangle to the right of the picture if it didn’t match. In a 128-picture set, the magpies outperformed even notoriously intelligent monkeys (Wright, 2017).
Impressive, don’t you agree? And just think, this is only a sampling of the many studied corvid behaviors that have taught us bird brains that they aren’t so bird-brained, after all.
Works Cited
Kabadayi, Can, and Mathias Osvath. “Ravens Parallel Great Apes in Flexible Planning for Tool-Use and Bartering.” Science, vol. 357, no. 6347, 2017, pp. 202–204., https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam8138.
Kaplan, G. Play behaviour, not tool using, relates to brain mass in a sample of birds. Sci Rep 10, 20437 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76572-7
Kaplan, G. Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour. “Birds That Play with Others Have the Biggest Brains - and the Same May Go for Humans.” The Conversation, 8 Mar. 2022, https://theconversation.com/birds-that-play-with-others-have-the-biggest-brains-and-the-same-may-go-for-humans-151079.
Taylor, Alex H. “Corvid Cognition.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, vol. 5, no. 3, 2014, pp. 361–372., https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1286.
Wright, Anthony A., et al. “Corvids Outperform Pigeons and Primates in Learning a Basic Concept.” Psychological Science, vol. 28, no. 4, 2017, pp. 437–444., https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616685871.
