Hey Birdbrain!

No... not you. That other birdbrain. Apparently if somebody calls you by that name, they're actually paying you a compliment. It turns out that birds aren't quite as dumb as many people have always assumed.

Birds are not stupid and their brains are not primitive, so it is about time the scientific world gave them full credit, experts said on Monday.

The current system dates back 100 years and suggests a bird's brain is mostly basal ganglia, and that this area controls primitive brain function and instinctive behavior.

In fact neither is true -- the bird brain more closely resembles human brains and even so, the basal ganglia is not a primitive region, said Erich Jarvis of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

Some of these birds apparently have some amazing abilities. A few of them you would probably guess for yourself... imitation, language. But did you know that birds can lie?

They can use tools, they can use songs and imitate human language to communicate and they can count.

"They can lie -- you can teach a pigeon to do something that will have another pigeon get food for a reward. You can find a female pigeon that will pretend a reward for food is coming and then she eats it instead of her mate,"

The timing of this is rather coincidental, since I was just mulling over this subject yesterday while refilling our squirrel proof bird feeder in the back yard. Our feeder has been a wonderful investment, providing endless hours of entertainment (particularly for our cats, who sit in the back window and watch them) and a learning experience.

The feeder has a perch on the front that is spring loaded and attached to a small door. If too much weight is on the perch, it pulls the door down over the opening and nobody can get to the food. Squirrels weigh too much, so they can't sit there and eat. Only light birds, primarily sparrows and nuthatches, can get access.

Even then, too many birds on the perch cause the door to close. This leads to a demonstration of how different birds think in unique fashions and have their own personalities. When one bird too many lands, a more aggressive bird will stop eating and try to chase the newcomer away so the door opens again. The really patient birds (who coincidentally seem to be the fattest ones) just wait for somebody else to do the eviction work and get back to eating.

It also attracts hawks. We have several living in the area now, and they've all figured out that a yard with a built in population of chubby, slow moving sparrows is a pretty good place to visit while hunting. I often go out and find a few drops of blood and some pathetic looking little feathers on the snow. Kind of sad for the sparrows, but it's the way of nature.

I'm not sure if the hawks have any concept of what the feeder actually is, but they certainly learned quickly that it attracts tasty little birds. I tend to believe this article simply because we've watched the birds in our neighborhood go through a learning process. And a few of them do seem capable of deception.