Crows possess higher intelligence long thought primarily human – STAT

Whether crows, ravens, and other corvids are making multipart tools like hooked sticks to reach grubs, solving geometry puzzles made famous by Aesop, or nudging a clueless hedgehog across a highway before it becomes roadkill, they have long impressed scientists with their intelligence and creativity.

Now the birds can add one more feather to their brainiac claims: Research unveiled on Thursday in Science finds that crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals.

A second study, also in Science, looked in unprecedented detail at the neuroanatomy of pigeons and barn owls, finding hints to the basis of their intelligence that likely applies to corvids , too.

via www.statnews.com

Good for corvids, but I personally don’t particularly like them. We have a lot of them where I live. They’re noisy and domineering, even chasing off the hawks (whom I do like) above our property. But they do eat the dead rabbits, and that I suppose is a useful service.