I know more than one person who believe that certain birds, especially crows, ravens, and cardinals, are reincarnated loved ones bringing a message.

I don't share this belief, but the more we find out about avian intelligence, the less surprised we should be that people actually think this.

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SoftTalker 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Given the tiny size of avian brains compare to mammals, particulary humans, it's hard to ascribe a lot of intelligence to them. But for what they can do, they seem quite well optimized.

	▲	fsiefken 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Brain size is not a decisive factor in estimating intelligence and corvid brains pack twice the neurons per volume compared to humans. The factor is: effective "Information Processing Capacity" (IPC), which is high for body size and rivals great apes on specific executive tasks. Extreme miniaturization eliminates travel distance, giving near-zero latency and high metabolic efficiency despite 1/5th the neurons of a chimp.
	▲	leftbit 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Bird brains are wired differently, neuron density is higher... so using size to compare brains is not enough. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-brains-have-...
	▲	misnome 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And that’s why Elephants are generally considered more intelligent than humans!

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doodlebugging 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm not sure why you get downvoted for pointing out that some people have a belief that is not shared by most other people.

Seems that some posters would rather shoot the messenger that delivers information that they don't agree with.

From interacting with domestic and wild animals for most of my life I figured out a long time ago that they understand their own world and their place in it way better than many of us understand the world we have created for ourselves.