I saw a program on PBS recently, (perhaps Nova) where they were testing the intelligence of birds especially in problem solving ability, and the birds were regularly solving puzzles that 3 or 4 or 5 year old human children often fail at.

Birds, one of my favorite animals, are indeed very smart and very clever. I had cockatiels for a while and loved to watch how the male and female would communicate and coordinate the care of their clutch (babies). Even in a controlled environment, they behaved as if they were in the wild. Also, the vocabulary of our male was quite large.

ETA: Bob, I’ve heard that as well but didn’t know there was a documentary too. Crows. Super smart.

I saw that program, too. I knew crows and some other birds were very smart, but had no idea about starlings.

I know humming birds certainly have memories. We have had them in spring, before we have out our feeders, circling around the area, looking ticked off, where the feeders were the year before.

How do you think starlings have learned mothballs will help rid them of parasites?

I've been reading a lot of interesting things at the KT lately!

Bird brains are way more developed than we think. Crows have funerals for their diseased and mourn them. Starlings are also smart and vilified but I like them and the way they communicate to their group. I love all birds. I feed them year round with seeds and suet.

I began to looks at crows differently after I read an article that talked about how they can remember your face and have been know to dive bomb people who have harassed them in the past. I notice that on garbage day they are flying in large numbers, several miles ahead of the truck as they have figured out that the cans are all out.

When I worked at the elementary school, the school cook would toss out old bread scraps behind the kitchen for the ravens. They quickly came to recognize her and would come to greet her anytime she stepped outside. It wasn't long before they learned which car was hers and when she left for the day they would fly behind her car and follow her home. It was hilarious to see 5 -10 ravens flying behind her car.

I read too that crows will hold funerals for one of their own who died. I never knew that but would sometimes see a bunch of the gathered and cawing and never knew that's what they were up to.

We put out bars of ivory soap to keep the deer away from our plants, but some bird is eating them...I think it may be crows. No idea why.

Ha! Dawn that sounds like something you’d see in a scary movie!

Now that you mention it, i was reminiscent Hitchcock's move The Birds, lukkiirish!

Birds are extremely intelligent. I learned quite a bit about that when I had my cockatiel. She was amazing and enormously entertaining.

My favorite bird story is about a hummingbird that visited a feeder I had hung very near my back sliding door. I could stand by the feeder and rest my finger on the perch; she would sit on my finger to feed! It only took a few practices for me to gain her confidence, after which she became very friendly,

I was in the habit of rising very early, sitting in my chair to listen to the birds wake up and watch the sunrise without turning on any lights. This little bird was always at the feeder first thing in the morning, before sunrise most mornings. Darned if she didn't start to come inside! Just a tiny bit at first but before long, she'd come in and check out the whole living room, squeaking non-stop the whole time. Every day.

If I slept in too late to suit her, she would 'pace' back and forth outside, squeaking loudly for me to open the darned door, then she would swoop inside past me while I sat in my chair. She came back for two years.

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norar, that is amazing. I'll have to pass this one along. Thanks for sharing.

Love bird stories.

Bird-brain? LOL, here's my favorite "insult", from a kiddie movie my daughter watched a gazillion times when she was little. Bad guy says to bad-guy's sidekick: "My brain's TWICE the size of yours, you pea-brain!"

I don't know if any of you heard a recent story on NPR about Mozart's Starling? The book looks very interesting, too. It's really worth a listen:

Mozart's Starling

When I was looking for this story to link, I found a previous interview in print that has much of the same info that I heard on the recent story.

Deceptive Cadence - Mozart's Starling - print story

That was very interesting. Thank you.

A pet shop I would often go to as a kid had a European Starling in a cage behind the counter. It had learned to emulate the ring tone of the electronic phone on the wall next to its cage. Several times while I was there it would go "trill trill -- trill trill" and the store staff would answer the phone, only to find no one there.

This sounds so much like an urban legend: Starlings rubbing their arm pits with moth balls. If true, it is fantastic. Next, they will be teaching the squirrels to do the same to rid themselves of fleas.

There was a movie some years ago called THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL. All true footage and amazing how parrots mate for life and take care of each other.

My friend was watching the squirrels when he saw the starlings and the mothballs. Pretty sure it was not an urban legend. I doubt if he knows what that is. He said the next time he'll try to get a picture of it.

There was an antique shop in Akron that I used to drive up and browse in. The owner had a big parrot. There was a neighbor who had a little yapping dog - yep, the parrot imitated the barking dog. The owner would say, "Sebastion, be quiet!" One time as I was leaving the shop, I heard the parrot call out very plainly, "HELP!"

You ought to see a bird anting in a fire ant mound! Hilarious.

Schoolhouse, I have been in that place in Akron. That bird was entertaining! We used to go in a shoe store that also had a Parrot. It was a great attraction to get people to come back and shop.

Three years ago our local state park that puts on a lot of informational nature type programs held one about Crows. DH and I went. The hostess was absolutely amazed at the amount of attendees it attracted. They had prepared seating and handouts for "maybe 25" but nearly 75 showed up. We do enjoy the crows that frequent our yard.

Igmd, you have? I think it is (or was?) on Market St. There were several shops on the street, I used to buy old books in one of them. In one I bought an antique chair, prob. from the 1930's, upholstered, claw feet, for $35. Since I didn't have much money in those days I couldn't wait for pay day to go back for it (I live outside Wooster). When I did, the lady got a strange look on her face and said, "Ohhhh, that chair......" I got the feeling the chair must have had some history I didn't know about! lol

After it was in my library for awhile all these tiny baby spiders came out of one arm. At least I thought they were spiders.....

Sorry went way OT.

Schoolhouse, My time there was in the 1970's and I believe you are right, Market Street. The shoe store with the bird was in Willoughby north of Akron and in the 60's

We have a small fountain that we can see from our library window. It has a single jet at the top of a softball-size cement ball. Most birds come for a drink, but we've seen a couple who perch directly on the water jet to clean themselves. (Bird bidet?)

I was at the dog park yesterday and there was a toddler crow who obviously had flown from the nest and ended up in the enclosed area. A park ranger was walking by so I mentioned that the little crow was hopping about and the one crow was dive-bombing anyone including the dogs who went near the crow. The park ranger came in and while being dive-bombed by not one but five crows now captured the crow and put him or her under a bush outside of the dog enclosure. Hopefully the parents found the crow and the crow figured out how to fly.

Such an interesting thread. Thanks everyone!

Tests have shown that crows can count up to 4. The experiment was done by having persons enter a blind and then some leaving the blind. What the researchers found was that if 4 persons entered the blind and then 3 left the blind, the sentry crow knew there were remained a person in the blind as judged by its behavior. By trying various combinations, it was found that crows could not track more than 4.

Anecdotal statements from hunters and farmers say that crows can tell the difference between a man carrying a gun or a stick. This remains to be proven.

I had 3 river birches close to the front door at my last house. A large group of black birds started gathering in those trees and they were extremely noisy. We always had the door open when we were home but would have to close it because of those birds. I started going out there and spraying the hose up into the trees trying to get rid of them. Oh boy, that made them come more often! This went on for a couple of weeks maybe. Then one day, I heard them squawking something awful in the backyard. I stepped outside to find one of their babies down on the ground and my cat was closing in on it. I screamed no to my cat, grabbed him up and took him inside. Those birds never bothered me again. I always felt like once I started spraying them, they were aggravating me more on purpose and then when I saved their baby, they stayed away out of gratitude.

I've always loved that crows put up a fuss when hunters are around in the woods, warning all other critters that trouble is afoot.

Blackbirds and starlings are very smart, but, please do not encourage them to hang around your house. They are carriers of histoplasmosis which can be fatal. Their droppings in the ground and humans digging in that ground, can cause very serious illness. Both Kentucky and Indiana, have had severe outbreaks in some area because of blackbirds and starlings. I am sure other states have too, but, those are the two states I know of. You can google it, and read all about it. It is a very serious disease.

Starlings and sparrows also kill the babies of native birds like the Eastern Bluebird and the chickadee. I love the crows but hate having a starting around, especially during the native bird nesting season. I've seen them with their heads inside a bluebird house and ran them off, only to find my baby bluebird heads pecked apart. Very sad ending.

One of my favourite books is "Mind of the Raven" by Berndt Heinrich. I've read it twice and could do it again. He's a naturalist who writes beautifully about the hours and days he's spent observing, the experiments he's done to see how creative and skillful they are. One chapter is about the "Einstein of Ravens" and believe me, this bird is an Einstein!

I agree. Ravens are amazing creatures!