Tom Cox @cox tom
Almost certainly the best thing I wa ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler and he told me that the wild owls in the sanctuary where he worked worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.
Birds are way smarter than we give them credit for. Im possitive that the smarter ones have a rudimentary language, specifically corvids. Owls are so cool, where I live I can go spot great horned owls just hiking around.
Parrots are definitely capable of using human words and phrases in context. Stuff like “bye bye” when someone leaves a room, or “want some water?” when they see you drinking from a glass and want to have a taste. Attaching sounds to concepts and using them to communicate those concepts seems like basic language stuff to me!
Source: had parrots my whole life. +bird tax
That's like the first beautiful tamed picture of a parrot I've seen. My aunt has a 27 year old parrot so he's an old fuck and I used to have a friend who's emotional state was so fucked up that her bird looked like she was on crack. Please more picture of your parrot please
Thank you, she’s adorable!
D'aawwwww
Isn't bird singing a rudimentary language ? They have different songs with different meanings
I mean as in they can describe appearances and events to each other, but probably not formulate any plans more complex than eat here, avoid that place, attack guys dressed up in Jason Voorhees costumes because three generations ago a guy dressed like that messed around with our nests... stuff like that
One time I tried to talk to a crow by telling it to caw once for yes, twice for no.
Grabbed its attention with a friendly greeting, to which it turned and looked at me, waiting for what I'd say, keeping eye-contact and everything.
I asked it if it actually was a crow, since I wasn't sure. It cawed once, and patiently waited for me to speak again, looking at me all curious. I said Thank you, and it looked like it nodded.
Obviously I have no idea if that bird actually understands that crow is what humans call it, but it did feel like I had an actual conversation with it.
I can tell you Ravens can learn their name and react to it.
We used to have a HUGE raven that would hang around a pet food co I worked at. So I started sneaking him bird seed because idgaf what the boss thinks, Im making a friend here.
One time the raven made this sound. Almost like the japanese water clock at the end of Kill Bill 1. I reacted like whoa, what a cool sound! And did a little jig. That raven named me 'waterclock' and used that sound to greet me whenever he encountered me. I miss Black-Beauty (my name for him)
That's so cool! Merlin would just peck at shoes of tourists to ask for food lol
I used to carry a bag of nuts in my pocket at work (where he used to visit me) just to get him away from scared people all the time.
That sounds so funny to me lol
They can do so much more! They're super intelligent, if you think a dog is clever (and I'd agree you're right) then look up the stuff ravens can do!
I know; friend of mine nursed an injured raven chick back to health a few years ago and he stayed around for the entire summer :)
Oh wow, that's awsome!
That last one was very specific
The last one was an experiment to see what corvids teach to their young and what knowledge is just inborn to them.
Very cool!
Yes, that is what I was referencing. Im on mobile so links I cant figure out. Does anyone feel like heroing up and linking the study?
Edit: removed gender pronoun
It was one guy with a caveman mask and one with a Dick Cheney mask. Dick was ironically the neutral or good (control) person who did nothing and the caveman was the bad (treatment) person who once trapped some crows and then released them.
Wildly speculating but could it be that knowledge about skills of corvidae goes back a bit and Hitchcocks "The Birds" wasn't just fiction?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uw-professor-learns-crows-dont-forget-a-face/
Thank you!
It definitely depends on the species. Parrots and corvids are the most intelligent groups as far as we know.
My immediate thought was imagining an owl hopping from boulder to bush, hiking around a forest.
My second thought was that I'm an idiot.
No, your awesome
Anecdotal story for you. I worked at a restaurant where our dumpster was across the parking lot. So when we took out trash it was a little walk. One time when taking out the trash, as I opened the door to go outside I heard a bird start chirping. It then flew over the dumpster, and as it passed over about 10 other birds flew out of the dumpster. He was the lookout.
Crafty!
I have ducks, and they're way smarter than people think. I have them trained pretty well. They follow some basic commands that make handling them easier. My favorite bird also helps me wrangle any ducks who aren't listening. I just tell him to help me and he does lol.
A sheep duck that herds other ducks? Thats quakers!
As I understand it Owls sit a little on the derpy side of the bird spectrum. A friend of mine was a vet tech for a sanctuary and appearantly they are divas who get very attached to a single person. She said owls as a rule are very easy to confuse and dupe.
Aaaw that's absolutely adorable! 🥰
My interpretation of this is that the wild owls thought that the tamed owls had more difficulty to take care of themselves, so they helped them by bringing them some food. Am I missing something?
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