this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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Tom Cox @cox tom

Almost certainly the best thing I wa ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler and he told me that the wild owls in the sanctuary where he worked worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.

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[–] TruthAintEasy@kbin.social 82 points 1 year ago (32 children)

Birds are way smarter than we give them credit for. Im possitive that the smarter ones have a rudimentary language, specifically corvids. Owls are so cool, where I live I can go spot great horned owls just hiking around.

[–] Olmai@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Isn't bird singing a rudimentary language ? They have different songs with different meanings

[–] TruthAintEasy@kbin.social 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean as in they can describe appearances and events to each other, but probably not formulate any plans more complex than eat here, avoid that place, attack guys dressed up in Jason Voorhees costumes because three generations ago a guy dressed like that messed around with our nests... stuff like that

One time I tried to talk to a crow by telling it to caw once for yes, twice for no.

Grabbed its attention with a friendly greeting, to which it turned and looked at me, waiting for what I'd say, keeping eye-contact and everything.

I asked it if it actually was a crow, since I wasn't sure. It cawed once, and patiently waited for me to speak again, looking at me all curious. I said Thank you, and it looked like it nodded.

Obviously I have no idea if that bird actually understands that crow is what humans call it, but it did feel like I had an actual conversation with it.

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That last one was very specific

[–] Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The last one was an experiment to see what corvids teach to their young and what knowledge is just inborn to them.

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[–] TruthAintEasy@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, that is what I was referencing. Im on mobile so links I cant figure out. Does anyone feel like heroing up and linking the study?

Edit: removed gender pronoun

[–] boomzilla@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was one guy with a caveman mask and one with a Dick Cheney mask. Dick was ironically the neutral or good (control) person who did nothing and the caveman was the bad (treatment) person who once trapped some crows and then released them.

Wildly speculating but could it be that knowledge about skills of corvidae goes back a bit and Hitchcocks "The Birds" wasn't just fiction?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uw-professor-learns-crows-dont-forget-a-face/

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