5 of 11

Write now Article Tools

Parrots? Crows? "Quoth the raven,nevermore!'" With no disrespect toward either the parrot family or its close relatives, crows, the raven is the nerd of the bird world. When considering animal intelligence, it's important to understand that humans tend to measure the intellect of animals according to how animals perform according to human expectations. Birds speaking appropriately in human language, birds using tools to obtain food, are behaviors that humans value; this can skew an evaluation of actual intelligence. Although ravens aren't likely to learn more than a few monosyllables of human language, they do use their brains to solve problems, and demonstrate complex communication between individuals and their flocks. Here is an example. Although this is not particularly pleasant subject matter, it illustrates the ability of ravens to move beyond simple problem solving skills to engaging the assistance of a second species in problem solving.

As with other animals, the inspiration for problem solving is often food. Ravens are scavengers, and largely depend on "road kill" and other animal carcasses for food. In frozen conditions, deer and other large animals die of starvation Ravens locate frozen carcasses, but they are unable to penetrate the thick hides to get to the meat within. In his book, Ravens in Winter, biologist Bernd Heinrich describes a behavior called recruitment:

When they've found food, ravens call other ravens to the feast; this serves as a protection mechanism for the birds, as many pairs of eyes can detect predators better than one hungry bird with its head buried in a carcass. It also ensures the health of the flock. Ravens hunt alone or in pairs, and the scouts sound an alert when food is found. More extraordinary is the concept of ravens recruiting larger animals to "open" large carcasses. This behavior suggests that ravens have the ability to reason to an an extent that enables problem solving though the use of strategy.

Birds of the corvid family, including ravens, crows, magpies, and jays have long been known to demonstrate intelligent behavior suggesting motivation beyond the hard-wired instinctive behaviors of most birds. Corvids demonstrate complex communications between individuals and their mates, and their flocks. Social behaviors include calling flock members to share food is common among these species, but the idea of recruiting unrelated species to open large carcasses suggests an entirely new definition of the term "bird brain." As research into recruiting is inconclusive, we'll be generous and nominate all members of the corvid family as the geniuses of the avian realm.

Learn more about this author, Karen Lawson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about The most intelligent bird?
We want to hear your view. Write now!