Just now while I was reading sciforums posting, I heard from my office window a bird singing "chui cha, whip, whip" then "chui cha, whip, whip, whip" then again "chui cha, whip, whip, whip, whip". That is 2, 3, 4 in order. Any bird lovers can explain what is going on here?
Don't know about that but a few years ago I had a bird who thought it's job was to peck on the window. From morning till night that is what it did. It eventually migrated and never returned to continue the behavior. For a while I didn't have to worry about an alarm clock, it was dependable.
Something tells me our avian feathered friends may have more to them than meets the eye. There was a news story about crows who would drop tough walnuts or something onto a sidewalk when cars were driving by. The cars would crack the nuts, and then the traffic lights would turn red and they'd go down and retrieve them. Sounds pretty intelligent to me. I have a pair of Lutino Fischers Lovebirds, and they do seem pretty clever, even if we don't get along too wellPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It's been known that bird song can be manufactured. Yes the poor birds can be used by dodgy little radio hams for their own entertainment, like TALKing to people. As if you didn't think a rude parrot was bad enough, it's possible to stream voices into their frequency from back at the radio lab, and next you have it, a person becomes doctor dolittle, because he can't do nothing. (sorry pun here, as most people hearing voices from animals gets carted off in a by the white coated officials with sugar laced pills) On the otherhand, birds are known to Mimic each others song, and possibly use extra sounds as apart of their song or while trying to get the attention of that attractive bird on the other roof.
Grey Parrot Intelligence Alex, an AFRICAN GREY PARROT, has an understanding of "number" comparable to that of a human child, the data suggest that he does comprehend some concept of quantity. Thus, although we have yet to show conclusively that Alex can, for example, count sequential metronome clicks to tell us that he has heard "three", he can recognize and label different quantities of physical objects up to and including 6 (78.9%, all trials). The sets of objects need not be familiar, nor need they be placed in any particular pattern, such as a square or triangle. Furthermore, if presented with a heterogeneous collection -- of X's and Y's -- he can respond appropriately to questions of either "How many X?" or "How many Y?" (62.5%, all trials; 70.0%, first trials) read more...
I walked away from my office for a little while, when I came back, I heard the sound 5,6,5,4 format. Then it flew away...so may be 6 is their highest number...interesting....
You don't happen to have a gyrocopter availible, kmuh, do you? I think it's time to chase this genius bird down and interrogate him like there's no tommorrow (with klingon-like torture devices, of course).
Don't know if they can count but I met this bird once who could actually read! Would you believe it; modern tecnology eh? Mind you I still think it was done with mirrors.
I knew a farmer once who swore that crows could count up to two but could not handle three. He hunted crows on his land that went after chicken eggs and did damage to the crops, such as pecans, that they would knock out of the trees. He always claimed that it took three people to hunt crows. That one crow would warn others of the two hunters and where they were but that with three, one would be unknown to the surrounding crows because the watch crow would not inform on the third hunter. How true that is I don't know but it was his claim.
Can they count their own eggs when we (or other bird) put extra eggs on their nest? My neighbour was put duck's eggs on chicken's nest. The chicken just sit on them without remove duck's egg. I saw at discovery channel that some birds also put their egg on other bird's nest. But I don't know, is chicken know when it lost one (or some) of it's babies? I think we can draw conclusion from here.
When I lived in london, sometimes I used to go to bed around dawn and I would listen to the sparrows begin their song, they always started with one bird making one chirrup, followed by the second with two, the third with three and so on, before long there were so many singing you couldn't differentiate between them. Maybe they all have a number which they sing out accordingly, I mean how do we know that in all that cacophony there isn't a number 556 for example, making 556 chirrups, along with all the others chirruping away? Still think it was done with mirrors though.
