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Bird brain, compliment, not an insult.

Started by Icarus, October 23, 2017, 02:44:59 AM

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Icarus

Here is a Ted Talk that might be interesting to my esteemed colleagues. This is about crows and Ravens. xSp will surely be interested because it is all about brains.  Take the 22 minute excursion into the minds of birds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fiAoqwsc9g  Definitely interesting to we seekers of earthly understanding.

I have a backyard bird feeder and a good spotting scope that can observe them up close and personal.  I see different behavior patterns for various ones like Cardinals, Woodpeckers,Wrens, Blue Jays, Doves and others. Recently I had an Osprey show up as a curious spectator not a raptor or feeder. He did not intimidate the smaller avians at all. (he is a fierce and efficient hunter who is exclusively  a fish eater)   

At the parking lot of my local supermarket grocery store, pizza shop, clothing store, Subway sandwich stand etc... there are almost always a bunch of crows who are actively exploring the parking lot where ....sorry to say,....low rent human  slobs sometimes toss food residue.  The crows are all but tame. they seem to have no fear of the traffic and the people who constantly go to and fro in the parking lot. They understand the danger of automobiles and take appropriate measures to avoid harm to themselves. I am fascinated by those little black birds.  There are no other bird species in evidence there, crows, just crows.

Dave

^
All the members of the crow fsmily are intelligent it seems, but crows snd magpies in partivular from mybobservations.

This is onebif my fsve videos of crows, but it's too short!
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

xSilverPhinx

:love:

Some birds of the Corvidae family really are exceptional.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Davin

They hold a grudge, they don't forget, and they don't forgive.

https://www.livescience.com/23090-crows-grudges-brains.html
QuoteResearchers in Seattle revealed last year that captured crows remember the face of their abductor. Even though years had passed since they saw the threatening face, the crows in the experiment would taunt their captor and dive-bomb him, suggesting the birds held tightly to a negative association.

That goes on to show that the bird's brains activated certain parts of their brains when looking at a "threatening" mask vs. a "kind" mask.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Bad Penny II

I'm just going to put Crow's spoon here, it might tempt him back.



I don't think I've changed my identity since our Crow made a post I interpreted as exasperated at my changing names.

Magpies remember people, if they think you're acting suspiciously they'll remember you, for a long time, decades.  When I was a kid I made my first dollars going around finding lost balls, climbing trees to get over a fence to get a ball, delving the nooks and crannies, I must of looked suspect to those engorged gonad maddened birds.  When I was playing golf they did assault me most unjustly, that kinda thing 'll put ya swing off.  I can't prove they caused my debilitating slice but I just don't like them, they have a nice song but I just don't like them, oh and they'll destroy a few human eyes every year.  But they were voted favourite bird?  It's madness.
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Icarus


Bad Penny II

#6
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/

Back when I was nipper a teacher said the creator of the wheel was on par with Einstein and his ilk.  I'm not sure about this but there seems to have been a bird on par with Fleming. 
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Dave

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 02, 2017, 11:26:02 AM
[url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/][url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/][url]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/][url]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138655-birds-use-cigarette-butts-for-chemical-warfare-against-ticks/[/url]

Back when I was nipper a teacher said the creator of the wheel was on par with Einstein and his ilk.  I'm not sure about this but there seems to have been a bird on par with Fleming.

I contend that the wheel was never "invented"!

And get only "About blank" when I hit the link, will try C&P-ing it

Nope, that didn't work either. Do you have a subscription, BP? Might be behind a pay-wall.

Even the most intelligent birds or animals rely on serindipity I think, a chance finding, but sone can communicate or copy. Whether, like humans, they intelligently, or intellectually, associate cause and effect I don't know. Come to think of it a lot of human discovery, particularly Fleming's, has an element of serendipity.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Bad Penny II

Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
And get only "About blank" when I hit the link, will try C&P-ing it

That's a forken enormous link and doesn't even work, I fixed it in the original post.
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Bad Penny II

Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
I contend that the wheel was never "invented"!

I don't think the nest was invented, not by a single bird.
Could of been a series of dinos anyway I suppose.
Is that what you mean about the wheel?
I've used logs to move other logs, broom handles to move heavy furniture.
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Dave

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 02, 2017, 12:07:03 PM
Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
And get only "About blank" when I hit the link, will try C&P-ing it

That's a forken enormous link and doesn't even work, I fixed it in the original post.

Thanks, BP.

Ah, looks like the birdie is just going for the fluff in the filter, as they will for sherpep wool, cotton-grass heads, down from other birds, chopped up bits of knitting wool put into a feeder etc etc.

The anti-pest thing is just lucky chance I am sure. Pure serendipity!
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Dave

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 02, 2017, 12:12:39 PM
Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
I contend that the wheel was never "invented"!

I don't think the nest was invented, not by a single bird.
Could of been a series of dinos anyway I suppose.
Is that what you mean about the wheel?
I've used logs to move other logs, broom handles to move heavy furniture.

Your point on rollers is the very point. A roller is not yet a wheel but helps move things. Unless there is a bump in the way, then it stops. So, ets a thicker roller, carve the middle bit fown to a smaller diameter - you now have a bit of ground clearance. But you dtill need three of tgem so when one gets near the back you can slip a new one in the front.

Now you cut those thick end bits off, make a hole in the middle then poke a stick through the holes, refine it by making the rims narrower than the middle. The "wheels" rotate but the "bearer" does not, and it's a lot lighter and, to a degree, more easily steerable . . .

So, not an invention but a development over, possibly, centuries by intelligent beings who can consider a problem, analyse it and find solutions.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Bad Penny II

Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
Even the most intelligent birds or animals rely on serindipity I think, a chance finding, but sone can communicate or copy. Whether, like humans, they intelligently, or intellectually, associate cause and effect I don't know. Come to think of it a lot of human discovery, particularly Fleming's, has an element of serendipity.

Chance? The same thing has happened countless times before but the Norms, be 'em bird or hume don't see anything.  Then an extraordinary comes along and notices it.
Birds are doing extraordinary things so birds, birds, birds as a group are smarter than we thought.
I posit that there occurs amongst the bird population genius birds that notice things other birds don't.  They communicate their findings, birds do a lot of talking.
I think the common human appropriates the doings of the great for the team. 
There's a lot of people walking around with pinnacle tech, haven't a clew how it works, looking down at birds.
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Bad Penny II

Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 12:16:21 PM
The anti-pest thing is just lucky chance I am sure. Pure serendipity!

That's not what their numbers are saying but I'm not sure there are enough numbers and I want to be amazed and you should always doubt when they give you what you want.
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Dave

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 02, 2017, 12:48:17 PM
Quote from: Dave on November 02, 2017, 11:30:24 AM
Even the most intelligent birds or animals rely on serindipity I think, a chance finding, but sone can communicate or copy. Whether, like humans, they intelligently, or intellectually, associate cause and effect I don't know. Come to think of it a lot of human discovery, particularly Fleming's, has an element of serendipity.

Chance? The same thing has happened countless times before but the Norms, be 'em bird or hume don't see anything.  Then an extraordinary comes along and notices it.
Birds are doing extraordinary things so birds, birds, birds as a group are smarter than we thought.
I posit that there occurs amongst the bird population genius birds that notice things other birds don't.  They communicate their findings, birds do a lot of talking.
I think the common human appropriates the doings of the great for the team. 
There's a lot of people walking around with pinnacle tech, haven't a clew how it works, looking down at birds.

Oh, certainly some birds have intelligence and can solve ptoblems:

And they do it the same way humans do - possibly birds learned that things could be hooked with a twig of a certain shape. This one adapted the wire which, to it, was just another kind of bendy twig. Thrushes use stones to break snail shells as do some vultures to crack bones open for the marrow. Birds will watch and learn from other birds who have solved food puzzles made by humans. A friend's parrot learned how to undo the safety catch on my watch strap, two buttons to be pressed simultaneously, and never forgot - a good memory is essential for survival.

Like humans they get bored as well, if doing the same thing every time gets exactly the same result they may try something new. Skinner found that buttons that presented food at an irregular frequency were more interesting to birds (and rats) than ones that delivered food every time. Some say there is a similar phenomenon with humans on one armed bandits, anticipation bring better than reward - as every casino and bookie relies on. I am sure Silver will say it has to do with the anxiety hormones of chance and then the rush of pleasure hormone release, the contrast, and how the brain prefers that to bring constantly awash in the pleasure stuff.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74