Bird brains are interesting because they've dealt with a significant chunk of the energy intensity of mammalian brains. Octopus brains are interesting because brains are traditionally energy intensive and top predators are usually long lived. Octopuses have this energy intensive sunk cost but also have a short lifespan.

I wish I understood enough of the appropriate level of neuroscience to get a bit of an understanding of the similarities and differences between bird and other brains.

I’m a little frustrated with talking about birds as a class in this context. Crows are legendary for figuring things out.

Turkeys are also legendary. Like the farmer brings three of them out, chops the head of the first one off. The other two are still standing there. “Wow! Look what happened to Charley! I wonder what this line is for.”

“Birdbrain” may be wrong for corvids but too complimentary to turkeys.