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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in OpenLab2009.

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« Singing in Slow Motion | Main | Mystery Bird: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus »

Genius Bird

Topic Categories: Behavior • Streaming videos
Posted on: November 14, 2008 8:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"

tags: ravens, Bernd Heinrich, genius bird, National Geographic, streaming video

This interesting National Geographic video shows how Bernd Heinrich designed an experiment to test the intelligence of ravens [2:07].

Find more posts in: Brain & Behavior Life Science

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Comments

There is a wild avocado tree on North Garfield Street in Alhambra, California. (The fruits are very small). When the fruits ripen, the ravens come for a feast. They will defend the tree, trying to drive off unwary pedestrians.

In neighboring San Marino, I've seen ravens at a four-way-stop intersection dropping the acorns from live oaks onto crosswalks, but only on the right side of the road. Here is where cars go the slowest as they come to a stop, and then pull away, breaking the acorn hulls. Cars going over acorns at higher speed shatter them, so apparently ravens like their acorn meat chunky style, not creamy.

Posted by: 6EQUJ5 | November 14, 2008 1:03 PM

Thanks for posting this. I remember seeing it on televsion a long time ago and it stuck with me ever since. It's great to have a copy of it. Thanks again.

Posted by: bob levy | November 14, 2008 7:59 PM

Thanks for submitting this post to our blog carnival. We just published the 42nd edition of Brain Blogging and your article was featured!

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Shaheen

Posted by: Shaheen Lakhan | December 26, 2008 12:17 PM

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