Do birds mind our presence?
Summer is the time when we tend to spend more time outside, reconnecting with nature one way or another. If we are keen observers, birds offer us myriad opportunities to engulf ourselves in their world of relationships, either with their mates of the same species or with birds of different species. But what about their relationship with us: do they mind our presence? Birds have long been perceived as not the brightest of the lot. The popular saying of having a “bird brain” has not exactly been a praise. At least until recently. As it turns out, many birds are among the smartest animals. That’s probably not surprising to anyone who observed the birds from the craw family for more than five minutes. But from a scientific point of view, the misconception lies in the different structure of brains. Birds don’t have the same structure of brain as mammals, thus it was considered that they are not capable of innovative ideas or self-consciousness. As many birds showed the capability to ...
