Bird Brain documentary summary

People always think of birds as "small brain" animals, and their brains are not worth the research. This notion is similar to what the article "Animals have brains, but do they have minds?" written by Jeffrey Kluger expressed. According to Kluger, "our[people] judgment is clouded by our feelings about any given species." (Kluger 10). That is, people refuse to seek the truth because they desire outcomes that favor their actions.

Birds are clever creatures, and their brains somehow are similar to ours. The researchers use the parrot Rio's favorite snack - peanuts - to try to train him. The result is surprising that Rio could "repeat it [the exercise] without trial and error." (04:17) Training animals are usually used on highly intelligent animals, like dolphins or monkeys. As early as the 1930s, Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz started study birds. He found out that birds can imprinting, which means follow the actions they first see. Also, birds could fly in particular patterns, which requires high levels of intelligence. However, scientists want to figure out if all these signs of high intelligence are out of birds' instinct or have intelligence. The conclusion is that "compared to other birds, parrots and crows have large brains in relation to their body size," (12:34) which is considered one reason why they seem much intelligent than other birds. The other reason is that, although bird brains are tiny, they have an executive center, which allows them to think and plan. Also, bird brains contain more brain cells or neurons than many other animals. Birds can also learn things, by playing, like humans. They could learn a skill from one content and use it on other content. All those evidence makes scientists think that birds do have intelligence.