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
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148
Bird skulls and brains look like those of young dinosaurs, providing clues to their unique evolution and modern success.
Evolution
Sep 11, 2017
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529
What's the difference between birds that get killed by cars, and those that don't?
Plants & Animals
Mar 29, 2017
3
78
It helps to have a larger brain if you're living in an extreme climate, according to a study of birds published in Nature Communications. The research suggests that birds have evolved larger brains to cope in harsh environments ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 22, 2016
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24
(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers has found that birds with bigger brains are less likely to get shot by hunters than birds with smaller brains. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Anders Pape Møller, ...
Some groups of birds are mentally just as smart as apes. This is the conclusion drawn by Prof Dr Onur Güntürkün from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Prof Dr Thomas Bugnyar from the University of Vienna in a review article ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 3, 2016
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68
Birds that migrate the greatest distances have more new neurons in the regions of the brain responsible for navigation and spatial orientation, suggests a new paper published in Scientific Reports.
Plants & Animals
Feb 24, 2016
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678
Cryptochromes are light-sensitive molecules that exist in bacteria, plants and animals. In animals, they are involved in the control of the body's circadian rhythms. In birds, cryptochromes are also involved in the light-dependent ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 23, 2016
3
577
In female songbirds, brain areas responsible for song learning are usually smaller and have fewer neurons compared to males. However, in many species such as the blue-capped cordon bleu, females possess an elaborate song. ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 4, 2015
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34
Like top musicians, songbirds train from a young age to weed out errors and trim variability from their songs, ultimately becoming consistent and reliable performers. But as with human musicians, even the best are not machines. ...
Neuroscience
Aug 3, 2015
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260
