[Sender]

Duh, animals will always plan for shortages. We don't need scientists to point this out. Animals have dealt with this problem for millenniums.

What gets me is when the local birds start talking about my family, my homies. They have no right to judge. They're in a stinking nest in a tree. Got ya beat. So there.

[digger48]

Yeah, but I know a Loon when I see one

[guinnessman]

I agree, although I'm not so sure about David Crosby.

[GSlob]

Big deal. My late cat was always setting himself on a newspaper in a proper relation to the text - never sideways to it, and never upside down. From which it is obvious that he was literate, and not merely literate but even multilingual, in at least three languages. What he was finding in the newspapers, though, remains a mystery.

[SamAdams76]

Hummingbirds will travel from someplace in Brazil to someplace in Alabama every year and then back again for winter. They go to the exact same places too.

Migrating birds have also picked up on our Interstate highway system. You can see them over the highways in spring and fall. It's like they have a Rand McNally Road Atlas hardwired in their tiny little heads.

[HighWheeler]

In my younger days I helped worked with the birds used for a Disney-like entertainment stage show. The crows were geniuses, the parrots and almost all other hooked beaks were not far behind. Even the cockatiels (also hook beaks)were funnier than hell as they tried to convince you that you should let them out and play with them. The emus were dumb as bricks.

[Conservative4Ever]

Don't have to tell me...we have Jays who take the peanuts left out and bury them in flower pots, fields, flower beds, etc. They go back to find them at a latter date. Not so dumb.

[Bob Mc]

Penquin joke

[Beagle8U]

""This is the first evidence that an animal can plan for the future," said Prof Nicky Clayton, who led the research team."

HUH? What about squirrels that store nuts for winter?

( Well, except the ones in California that tend to play with their nuts rather than store them.)

[Kevmo]

bump for later reading

[FLOutdoorsman]

I've seen Crows do some pretty amazing things.

I've watched Crows pick up Hickory nuts and Pecans and drop them on roads to crack them open. Pretty cool.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Ravens are very smart. In the far north, they've learned to sit on the photocell that turns on street lights -- once one of them has turned on the lights on a block, the whole flock keeps warm on top of the fixtures.

A favourite raven trick is working in a team to steal all the food from a dog tethered up outside. One raven does a little dance just out of reach of the dog -- while the dog is barking and lunging at that raven, his buddies are eating the food. After a couple of minutes the ravens rotate, so that they all get to eat. When they're done, they usually fly to a nearby tree and laugh at the dog for a few minutes.

[Dysart]

For several years I've been feeding a Mockingbird peanut butter every morning by spreading on a tree limb in my backyard. He takes a mate every spring and brings her and their offspring to the tree with him. After the fledglings reach about 4 weeks, he runs them all off from his territory. He won't even let me finish spreading on the tree limb before he begins to feed inches away from me.

This morning I was running late, and skipped this ritual. I headed out the front door to get in my car when he flies over and lands in a tree next to my driveway, staring me down. I just laughed and started to get in my car. He then flies over and lands on the roof of my car! Well I got the point. I turned and headed to the gate to the backyard and when I arrived at the usual feeding spot, he was already waiting. So this bird associates me with food, and one of the most basic learning methods is realized through association. It requires some thought.

Yes, birds are much smarter than we have traditionally given them credit for being, but if you take the time to closely observe, you know better.

[PUGACHEV]

High on the weirdness quotient is this website with a collection of WAV files of a talking parakeet. The bird isn't merely repeating what its heard, but voicing original thoughts. Frankly, I can hardly believe it, and I'm not sure what to think.

http://www.budgieresearch.homestead.com/

[HHFi]

Hardly news to me. I have 15 rescued parrots of various sizes and species, and there isn't a single one who isn't a far more intelligent conversationalist than anyone who ever hosted a show on "Air America." Of course, that includes a parakeet who only says "Hello." But at least she knows better than to try to talk when she doesn't know what she's saying, which puts her light years beyond Al Franken.

[ErnBatavia]

Anthropomorphism bump....

[Psycho_Bunny]

lol......An idiotic article, at best.

As if no other biologist in the history of Cambridge had come to this conclusion before.

[Revolting cat!]

Yes they are (stupid, after all.) Here's what Peter O'Toole says of Hollywood birds (on another concurrrent thread):

"You look into their eyes and there's no one at home. Oh God help us! It's like looking at an unlit lamppost."

[FixitGuy]

I feed Cardinals, Tufted Titmice, Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers,goldfinches, Purple Finches, & Black Capped Chickadees.

I can tell they plan to eat more because they crap all over my deck.

However, I enjoy the birds and have learned to clean it up.

[PzLdr]

I read years back that the Corvidiae [crows, ravens and bluejays] were incredibly intelligent, and could remember where they had dropped food items while in flight, long afterwards.

And parrots have a greater vocabulary than most Democrats - and bigger brains.