Re: Bird Brains

["Martin Barnett" <martin.barnett3@virgin.net>]

I find the term "Bird brain" incredibly funny for, as insults go, it makes
as much sense as shouting "mensa candidate" or "grade A pupil" to indicate
stupidity.  Birds are one of the smartest creatures I've ever met.  I
reccomend 'The Minds of Birds' by Alexander F Skutch for a really good look
at the cognitive behaviours of these creatures.  It has some hilarious
stories too.
> They recognize that reflections in a mirror imitate
> reality, for instance (a skill which humans do not have until age two).
I guess that would be a very useful tool for a bird especially ones that fly
over water - catching fish is hard enough without having to fend off that
dastardly reflection too
> They
> can recognize patterns and make predictions of future events based on the
> patterns (red circle, red square, red triange, what color will the next
shape
> be?)  All this they do with a little bird brain, _much_ smaller in
relation to
> body mass than a monkey's.Is it possible that avian brains are wired to
make a
> more efficiant use of space than mammalian brains are?
I'd say it's more likely that the pattern recognition portion of the birds
brain is larger than the same in a chimp.  Flight makes large demands on
certain neural features in birds that chimps and their arboreal lifestyle
would probably rarely need.
> Also, what does this say
> about dinosaurian brains?
It certainly looks good as far as Troodontids and other large brained
maniraptoran dinosaurs go

Happy new year to one and all,
                                                Sam