Which birds are the smartest and why

A parrot can be taught to speak. With special cunning, the rook steals dry food pellets directly from the bowl of a gaping cat. The crow teases your dog on a leash and seems to be laughing at it. These birds seem to be really smart. Why and how they differ from other birds – the staff of McGill University found out. An international team of biologists has studied 111 species of birds. They were only interested in the “cloak of the brain” – the pallium. It is the avian equivalent of the human cerebral cortex. It allows a person to reason, make decisions, remember events.

It turned out that birds have enough neurons in the pallium to invent more than 4000 actions to obtain food. Parrots have the most neurons. Therefore, they can invent more new chains of sequential actions, not only for food, but also for other purposes.

In addition to neurons and brain size, the intelligence of birds is affected by the time spent in the nest during infancy. McGill University professor Louis Lefebvre spent 20 years collecting examples of bird behavior and came to amazing conclusions.

Larger species of parrots and crows spend more time in the nest. Here their brain grows and accumulates a number of neurons in the pallium. This helps birds to grow inventive and surprise a person with the ability to memorize and repeat words. And also to deceive a larger pet in order to enjoy his food.