Urban Birds Boast Big Brains

[thinker_jeff]

It can take smarts to survive in the big city. Especially for birds. The urban environment is very different from the one in which their ancestors were born and fledged. But do city birds really need more gray matter to make it?

 

Scientists surveyed 82 species of passerine birds, including sparrows and anything that perches, in and around 12 cities in central Europe.* They classified the birds as those that breed in the heart of the city or those that avoid the hustle and bustle. And then they compared the bird brains.The results? Birds that prosper on the city streets have larger brains than their pastoral relations. So it seems that novel environments, including urban landscapes, may select for street smarts—at least for birds that flock toward the city lights.

 

Urban areas continue to spread. So to survive, our feathered friends may need to expand their minds as they spread their wings.

 

Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=urban-birds-boast-big-brains-11-04-27

 

 

 

[Dekan]

British urban pigeons seem depressingly dumb. If this example is anything to go by:

 

I live in a flat with an outside balcony. In a corner of the balcony, pigeons keep building nests and laying eggs.

 

A few days ago I tried this experiment:

 

A pigeon had laid an egg in a nest. She was sitting on it, incubating it. I shooed her away. Then while she was away, I picked up the egg (there was just the one), and put it down, about 18 inches from the now-empty nest.

 

When the pigeon came back, she went straight to the empty nest, and sat on it. And went on sitting there. Completely ignoring her egg, which was in full view, only a foot and half away.

 

I wondered, why didn't she use her beak, body, or wings, to push or roll the egg back into the nest?

[CaptainPanic]

The big city poses a real challenge for some birds... so it may take bigger brains to make it there.

But could it also be that food in a city tends to be richer in calories and proteins, which at least enables the birds to grow that bigger brain?

 

I completely agree with Dekan that city pigeons seem to be an exception to the rule. They are like the

of the avian world. Edited May 5, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[thinker_jeff]

But could it also be that food in a city tends to be richer in calories and proteins, which at least enables the birds to grow that bigger brain?

 

Yes, it is possible.

There is another possibility which has not been ruled out. The first settled generation of the birds in a city might be a group of smarter birds than others. Mightbe they had bigger brains than those in countryside since beginning.

I come up this assumption because I have seen similar thing happened in humans. Some people born in countryside love to move into a city but other country people want to stay away from city. In my personal observation, the country people who love to stay in a city are typically smarter ones.

To be clear, I don't want to be offensive to anybody. There are always some smart people loving to live in countryside. My personal impression might not be accurate either.

Edited May 5, 2011 by thinker_jeff