{"id":147971,"date":"2025-05-10T12:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/?p=147971"},"modified":"2025-05-10T12:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:59:22","slug":"pet-bird-ph-d-turns-out-birds-are-way-smarter-than-we-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=147971","title":{"rendered":"Pet Bird Ph.D.? Turns Out Birds Are Way Smarter Than We Thought!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, picture this: for ages, we’ve loved parrots. They’re chatty, they’re colorful, they can learn to say embarrassing things at dinner parties. Great pets, right? But for the longest time, the folks in lab coats basically thought, “Cute, but dumb.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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They looked at parrot brains and went, “Hmm, doesn’t look like *our* fancy mammal brains. No neocortex? Must be mostly basic instinct, like a feathery Roomba.” They even named the bird brain parts in a way that suggested it was all just primitive stuff. Ouch.<\/span><\/p>\n

This “bird brain” bias meant bird scientists and mammal scientists weren’t really talking \u2013 like, for *decades*.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine the awkward silence at the Neuroscience Christmas party! Finally, around the turn of the millennium, a bunch of smarty-pants scientists (the “Avian Brain Nomenclature Consortium,” bless their jargon-loving hearts) got together and yelled, “HOLD THE PHONE!”<\/span><\/p>\n

They realized bird brains, while built differently (think messy nuclear apartment building vs. neat layered condo), had parts that did *similar* complex jobs to ours. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, they radically renamed everything, basically admitting, “Oops, our bad. These birds *can* think!” This helped everyone compare notes without getting confused.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/if-your-pet-bird-doesnt-have-a-neocortex-how-come-its-so-smart\/<\/p>\n

Now, among birds, two groups stand out as the certified geniuses: **parrots** and **corvids** (crows, ravens, jays \u2013 the cool goths of the bird world). Corvids got studied first, maybe because they were hanging around the scientists’ backyards more often. Parrots, often chilling in more exotic locales, had to wait their turn for the scientific spotlight.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, a few “early birds” (pun intended!) like Ladygina-Kohts, K\u00f6hler, and Fischel poked at parrot smarts way back when.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the real MVP for a long time was Irene Pepperberg and her superstar African Grey, **Alex** (short for Avian Learning EXperiment \u2013 see, scientists *can* be clever!). <\/span><\/p>\n

Alex showed the world parrots could handle communication and numbers. Since about 2010, though, parrot research has EXPLODED. Seriously, there have been like 50+ new studies just since 2018! We’re finally catching up.<\/span><\/p>\n