Bird Brain

Bird Brains by Candace Savage

1. A thesis is established for the works could be that regardless of our relatively low expectations of birds, they are actually quite smart. The book supports this claim with relatively scientific evidence. It does this by proposing an idea and following it up with quotes from the conductor of the experiment. Usually the quotes are fairly specific, however I noticed that the quotes rarely explained the why to the results. This could be attributed to “anthropomorphism,” or,  “the too-easy ascription of human emotions and mental processes to nonhuman animals” (19). Although their results may have helped prove the thesis of the book, none of the information made connections to their ability of higher thinking, rather explained what the results meant. Personally I found that by doing this, the book almost took away the some credibility. Occasionally however, there were moments where the author did fill in some gaps as to why (I will cover this later). A theme of the book was this idea of learned versus innate characteristics. I found that the best example was in the story of Konrad Lorenz. Having a collection of tame Jackdaws, Lorenz decided to introduce a new fledgling. When he grasped the new bird, completely tamed members of the colony attacked him, pecking at Lorenz’s hand until the new jackdaw was released. However, he later learned that, “young jackdaws  had no inborn reaction to predators,” and instead, “had to learn from their parents’ example what to trust and what to fear… if the adults responded to someone or something with alarm, the young birds quickly developed an identical phobia” (26).  
1. Ultimately, to support the claim that birds are smarter than we perceive, Savage uses multiple subtopics; resource management, generic shape and pattern matching, and parental features. Although the birds’, “cerebral cortex (the organ of higher thought in humans and other mammals) looked distressingly small and poor developed,” they still “share the ‘cognitive capacities’ of many primates.” (26,18). So why do we seem regard primates more highly than birds. Interestingly enough, the birds, “brain to body ratio equals that of dolphins and nearly matches our own” (29)! I don’t know about you, but the insult, “bird brain,” just got a whole lot less offensive.
2. The book mentions several times about the plasticity of brains and how the bird is capable of learning new things/ modifying old. For example, a magpie was attempting to build a nest in a confined area. Instead of using the material that the male partner had brought, the female independently ventured out to gather softer materials such as newspaper and grass. Ultimately, instead of making the tough outer portion of the nest, the female magpie made only made the soft inner portion so that the nest could fit in the confined space. Another example of the plasticity of the brain is in the example of the blue jay. The blue jays have been known to build their nests lower to the ground, however, younger birds may try to build their nests higher up into the canopy to expose their nests to the sun. Although this may benefit them, it also puts them at a higher risk of predation. As a result, “the frequency of nesting in exposed locations dropped from eighty percent to fifty five percent after individuals suffered their third predatory experience when nesting in exposed locations” (47). Another way the reading connect to the class was through identification of the portions of the brain. As mentioned above, the cerebral cortex is the basis for all higher thinking and that is why the bird’s is relatively small. However, there was an adaptation that did allow for complex thinking. Not found in mammals, a miniature cerebral cortex can be found in birds.
3. If I could ask the author two questions they would probably be:
1. What can be said about the mating habits of the birds? Are they genetically imprinted in the bird’s mind or is it a learned characteristic? Can a bird be taught the ‘dance’ or ‘song’ of another bird species.
2. Can a bird species really learn and or make alternate neural pathways to adapt to its environment? Although the jay may move its nesting ground after the 3rd predatory encounter, is it really the cortex at work? Or is it still imprinted in the jays brain?
4. I really enjoyed this reading. Although I read it at 4:00 am, I had absorbed almost all of the information that I had read. Infact, I was probably more critical of the reading because it was so late at night. In my opinion, the reading was very realistic as it contained scientific evidence as well as facts about the information discussed (for example the cerebrum, how nests are built and so on). For starters, I will discuss the things that I liked. Specifically, I loved how the book incorporated images to accompany the subjects it discussed. It really helped visualize the material. Concepts that I enjoyed learning about were how the bird brain has a ‘mini cerebral cortex’ that is not found in mammals. I also enjoyed learning about how the certain birds adapted to their surrounding environment. Although it cannot be proven that the birds actually adapted to their environment, I found it to be an interesting hypothesis. I also liked how the book went into detail as to how birds identify their young. I had been interested as to how they recognized their own chicks among the rest of the newborns. What I did not like however, was how the book almost contradicted itself. One second it’s saying that birds are intelligent as they can recognize shapes, yet counters the point by mentioning anthropomorphism. The book then continues along the lines mentioning the interesting mental powers of certain birds. To me it just seemed counter intuitive.
5. The effects of this work are in the grey zone. Once again, there have been speculations of birds having a higher level of thinking, but the general opinion is that they do not. The book helps to explain and clear up these speculations and make some of the grey area black and white, narrowing bringing us closer to definite answer. The practical application of this book is that it allows an ordinary person to have an new appreciation for birds. Ultimately, I believe this book will be apart of the foundation for the research that eventually proves or disproves whether or not birds have a higher level of thinking.