Bird brains

Rooks have already demonstrated their intelligence in lab-based studies that have tested their ability to solve problems and use tools.

This survey will examine if and how wild rooks apply these skills.

And although rooks are farmland birds, and tend to keep away from the middle of big towns and cities, they are increasingly being tempted into our gardens by bird feeders, so researchers hope this will provide the ideal setting to study their natural behaviour.

The study will look at six categories of behaviour: feeding, caching (hiding and storing food), tolerance, object play, socialising and vocalisation.

Dr Nathan Emery an expert in corvid behaviour who is helping run the study, explained that many of the abilities the birds had demonstrated were previously thought to be uniquely human.

“We’ve done a lot of different studies on a number of corvids looking into their intelligence and behaviour, focusing on their amazing memories, their ability to imagine future scenarios and plan for them,” he said.

“This survey will provide vital information that couldn’t be attained any other way into how rooks use our gardens, eat and cache our food and, importantly, whether rooks can produce innovative solutions to novel problems they don’t encounter in the wild.”

As well giving insights into the abilities of these clever crows, researchers want to understand the behaviour of rooks in order to work out the reason for a decline in their numbers in recent years.

Source: BBC

N.H.Khider