A team of researchers from Sweden, Canada and Spain has found evidence suggesting that birds that live on islands tend to have bigger brains than their mainland cousins. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, ...
University of Alberta neuroscientists have identified the neural circuit that may underlie intelligence in birds, according to a new study. The discovery is an example of convergent evolution between the brains of birds and ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 3, 2018
13
1954
Neuronal cell types in the brains of birds linked to goal-directed behaviors and cognition are similar to cells in the mammalian neocortex, the large, layered structure on the outer surface of the brain where most higher-order ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 15, 2018
0
152
With woodpeckers, the answer's in the question—true to their name, they peck wood. And when they do, they peck hard—with each peck, the bird undergoes a force of 1,200 to 1,400 g's. By comparison, a measly force of 60-100 ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 2, 2018
0
395
Researchers at UC San Francisco have shown how the Bengalese finch, a domesticated songbird, can learn to tweak its song in specific ways depending on context, which could shed light on how the human brain learns to apply ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 16, 2017
0
44
Pigeons are capable of switching between two tasks as quickly as humans – and even more quickly in certain situations. These are the findings of biopsychologists who had performed the same behavioural experiments to test ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 26, 2017
0
1113
Given how proud we are of our big brains, it's ironic that we haven't yet figured out why we have them. One idea, called the cognitive buffer hypothesis, is that the evolution of large brains is driven by the adaptive benefits ...
Evolution
Sep 25, 2017
0
148
Bird skulls and brains look like those of young dinosaurs, providing clues to their unique evolution and modern success.
Evolution
Sep 11, 2017
0
529
Does estrogen affect the way females perceive male sexual signals? That is a question a team of Yale researchers explored in a study, focusing on the female house sparrow.
Plants & Animals
Aug 30, 2017
0
1
What's the difference between birds that get killed by cars, and those that don't?
Plants & Animals
Mar 29, 2017
3
78
