ON THE WING
The subject of birds — or more precisely bird intelligence — was very much in the frame when the Hobart Bushcare Walking Book Club took to the hills high above the city on a recent outing.
Each month the club considers a title related to the world of nature, and the latest tome for the walk and talk was a book about avian intelligence, The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman.
When it comes to animal intelligence, birds have long been considered low on the pecking order, with the term “bird brain” not only an insult to our feathered friends, but to the humans to whom it is delivered.
Jennifer Ackerman, however, shows birds to be impressively intelligent. While for decades people have written off birds as largely witless, driven by instinct and capable of only simple mental processes, the author sets out to prove otherwise.
She writes that, according to new research, some birds rival primates and even humans with their remarkable forms of intelligence and social smarts. They make complex navigational decisions, sing in regional accents and use tools. They also share and teach. They summon witnesses to a death in the family, and they may even grieve. And they do it all with brains so tiny each would fit inside a walnut.
Ackerman travels the world, bringing together the latest science from lab and field, but perhaps more importantly she reveals the intelligent bird behaviour we can observe in our own backyards or in city parks. In doing so, she reveals what a bird’s intelligence may have to say about our own.
The author urges her readers to stop and look at the behaviour of birds in all settings, as scientists have been doing increasingly in recent years to dispel the birdbrain myth.
She concedes, though, that birds “do indeed have brains very different from our own – and no wonder. Humans and birds evolved independently for a very long time – since our last common ancestor more than 300 million years ago. But some birds, in fact, have relatively large brains for their body size, just as we do.”
It’s not just brain power that fascinates Ackerman but other aspects of bird life like the capacity to derive enjoyment from play.
And on the book club walk there were plenty of examples of apparent play, especially from a member who had observed the New Zealand alpine parrot, the kea, using the snow-covered roofs of hiking huts as ski runs.
I witnessed similar kea behaviour myself on a tour of New Zealand in May. I had heard about these remarkable birds and can now attest that they show an intelligence to rival another smart bird closer to home, the ravens I feed in my garden.
The Hobart Bushcare Walking Book Club was launched last year and I urge anyone who enjoys books, nature and hiking to view the Hobart Bushcare website for details of future walks.
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