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Elva Tang
Prof. Haas
WR 39C
24 April 2016
Historical Conversations Project: Avian Intelligence

Introduction
Ornithologythe study of birds, dates back to ancient times from Aristotles
classification of birds, but the study of bird intelligence itself is rather young. In 1702, Ferdinand
Johann Adam Von Pernau published one of the first essays on bird behavior, and it was not until
200 years later in 1910 where James Porter published Intelligence and Imitation in Birds; a
Criterion of Imitation, in which he explores the very basics of how birds imitate, but in which
still heavily reflects the views of animals at the timeranking much lower than human (Porter
69). Porter, like many scientists for hundreds of years attribute birds with immense amount of
instinct rather than true rational intelligence like that of primates and cetaceans more popularly
studied, thus birds have been dubbed to have the notorious bird brain. However, recent studies
dating back only about 20 years popularized by Peter Marlers Social Cognition, indicate that
birds may have rational intelligence surpassing even that of primates (Emery).
This review of literature will explore the recent studies of the intelligence of avians-especially corvids, demonstrating their brain evolution and how that has resulted in their
complex intelligence giving them abilities in problem solving, social cognition and even theory
of mind. I will address these three topics in that order throughout this essay, and discuss the
change in scientific conversation over the years. Through the exploration of these evidence of
consciousness in corvids, this review will attempt to raise questions of whether the current

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blatant destruction of habitat for so many species of birds that do show this type of mental
capacity and awareness is ethical.

Brain Size and Evolution

The saying bird brain refers to the assumed low intelligence of birds as well as the tiny
size compared to that of primates. It was once thought that a large brain size meant a higher
intelligence, but now we know that brain size also correlates with body size, and that larger brain
mass can be concentrated in areas like the brain stem where there is no cognitive thinking. So,
brain size is not a good measure of intelligence. It would be more accurate to compare certain
parts of the brain between species, using the brain stem as a control (Emery). A study in 1989 by
Sherry, Vaccarino, Buckenham, and Herz shows that the size of the hippocampus is related to the
birds ability to store food. They found that especially in species that hide and recover large
amounts of food items over long time periods, this relationship is especially pronounced
(Emery). Furthermore, contrary to past belief that the bird brain originated from the basal
ganglia, which allows the brain incapable of any flexible or intelligent behavior, a study in
2005 by Jarvis and Consortium shows that not only are large parts of the bird brain actually
derived from the pallium, mammalian brains are derived from the pallium as well (Emery).
Not only are bird and mammalian brains more similar than we thought, the two groups
also seemed to have faced similar obstacles, in which they solved in similar ways resulting in a
possible convergent evolution. An interesting study titled Intelligence in Corvids and Apes: A
Case of Convergent Evolution? by Amanda Seed, Nathan Emery, and Nicola Clayton in 2009
discusses how problem solving and social learning may have arisen in corvids and apes for
similar reasons. I will use the evolutionary approach described in this article to tie together the

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other research I will explain here as a possible explanation for why corvids are as intelligent as
recent research shows.

Problem Solving
There have been many studies on insight and the abilities of problem solving in corvids.
A classic example is how trained ravens and keas can immediately solve new problems related to
string pulling at a very high rate, indicating possibly a form of rapid problem-solving (Emery).
In fact problem solving in corvids ranges from the ability to understand numbers to tool use. A
famous experiment by Koelher was done in the 1950s which showed that birds have an amazing
competency for not only quantifying things, but counting. The raven and grey parrot in this
experiment learned rapidly to do what was instructedto eat the correct amount of food by
choosing the correct box with the numerically labeled amount of items (Emery).

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Works Cited
Emery, Nathan J. Cognitive Ornithology: The Evolution of Avian Intelligence.Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361.1465 (2006): 2343. PMC.
Web. 20 Apr 2016.
Porter, James P. "Intelligence and Imitation in Birds; A Criterion of Imitation". The American
Journal of Psychology 21.1 (1910): 1-71. Print. 20 Apr 2016.