For boy budgies, brains beat brawn in the mating game

Research finds female birds prefer suitors that demonstrate clever behaviour.

There’s interesting dating news from China. Brains beat looks in attracting birds. If you’re also a bird.

A recent study of Australian budgerigars ( Melopsittacus undulates) by a Chinese and Dutch team suggests that males who reveal their smarts become more attractive in the eyes of female counterparts.

That’s significant, the researchers say, because it could underlie the evolution of cognitive performance in animals.

Perhaps surprisingly, the fitness benefits of cognition, as well as the underlying selective mechanics, have been little studied outside humans.

Previous studies with birds have inferred a preference for mates with greater cognitive abilities based on secondary behaviours correlated with intelligence, such as song. However, this does not directly address the role of cognitive ability on mate choice.

In the new study, the researchers examined whether female budgerigars altered their preference for males after observing a potential suitor’s ability to do something clever that its rival couldn’t. And they did.

The study was reported in a paper published in the journal Science.