There are 10,000 species of bird on the planet, many of them renowned for their intelligence.
However, do you know which is thesmartest birdin the world?
If youve been wondering, what is the smartest bird species?
Then, without further ado, lets get into it.
African Grey Parrots
Parrots are one of the most popular petbirdspecies throughout the world.
Not only are they beautiful, but they are also highly intelligent birds with a lot of brainpower.
African grey parrots come in two types with a few lesser-known subspecies.
The largest and most popular species is the Congo African grey.
Congo African greys are light in color and have a solid black beak.
The most famous testing of African greys is the research trials conducted by Dr. Irene Pepperberg.
She taught her parrot Alex a large amount of human vocabulary.
When Portugal began trading with western Africa, they captured more birds and kept them as pets throughout Europe.
Clarks Nutcracker
Nutcrackers come in three different species.
The spotted nutcracker, the large spotted nutcracker, and the Clarks nutcracker.
The Clarks nutcracker is by far the smartest out of all three.
Now, this on its own isnt anything special.
Many birds gather and store seeds and nuts for winter.
What makes the Clarks Nutcracker different is that they only store three or four seeds in any given place.
The Clarks nutcracker would need at least 30,000 pine seeds to sustain them through the entire winter.
So, if you do the math, thats roughly 10,000 hiding spots.
And once the snow falls, how exactly do they remember this extraordinary amount of hiding places?
William Clark first observed the species in 1805 at the banks of the Salmon River.
Crow
Scientists consider crows to be one of the smartest birds in the entire animal kingdom.
Crows are categorized into the corvid family, which also includes magpies, jays, and ravens.
To get a bit sciency on you, lets discuss the neurons in a crows brain.
Which, in turn, results in movement.
Scientists believe that the crows neurons would be smaller and more compact due to the birds smaller size brain.
Theyve calculated that crows have roughly 1.5 billion neurons in their brain.
This number matches up to those of some monkey species.
However, because the neurons are more compact, the communication between them is greater.
Greater neuron communication results in higher intelligence.
This higher intelligence is more on par with Great Apes.
Witnesses have seen crows do various things that seem almost unlikely.
Once the traffic slows, the birds fly down and retrieve their nut prize.
Furthermore, crows create tools out of sticks and leaves to extract bugs from tree trunks.
Monkeys, one of the most intelligent animals, are also known to do this.
This act is partly why scientists believe that crows are close to their intelligence levels.
Probably the most astonishing skill a crow has is the fact that they can remember human facial features.
So, a little advice, dont upset a crow.
Its likely they wont forget it.
We can easily recognize crows and variations of the species that live in countries all over the world.
Fork-Tailed Drongo
The medium-sized fork-tailed drongo is native to the tropics and subtropics of Africa.
Entirely covered with glossy black feathers, the fork-tailed drongo deceives and steals to have his daily meals.
With that being said, they arent all bad.
When a predator is approaching, the fork-tailed drongo sounds an alarm to warn other animals of their presence.
This trust that the other animals have in the drongo gives him the upper hand.
Theyre inquisitive birds and have an eye for shiny things.
If a jackdaw catches a glimpse of a shiny object, itll most likely swoop down and take it.
Not only are jackdaws attracted to shiny things, but they also love eye contact.
Yep, you heard it, eye contact.
Jackdaws can interpret gestures from humans and other birds by looking into theireyes.
Scientists have also witnessed some populations of jackdaws pluck hairs off animals such as deers.
Jackdaws are a loving species that usually pair for life.
The Western jackdaw inhabits Europe, Asia, and North Africa, whereas the Daurian jackdaw lives in Russia.
Western jackdaws are typically black, with some having lighter feathers on their heads and chests.
Kea
The kea is a parrot species that inhabit the South Island of New Zealand.
As the kea is native to the island, many also know it as the New Zealand mountain parrot.
Scientists have tested kea, who work extremely well pushing and pulling objects to obtain a food treat.
Bird watchers have also filmed kea preparing and using tools to pick out berries, nectar, and insects.
Magpie
Its no secret that magpies are intelligent birds.
Scientists believe that the Eurasian magpie is the smartest bird of the bunch.
This funeral gesture shows scientists that magpies have a compassionate side to them.
Their skillset doesnt stop there.
Most people know parrots can mimic human speech, but this skill isnt just limited to their species.
Magpies, wild and captive, have the ability to also replicate sounds given off by humans.
Even when challenged with a cognitive test, magpies pass with flying colors.
Magpies are one of only ten animal species that can accomplish this task.
Others include bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, orangutans, chimpanzees, and Asian elephants.
Throughout history, there have been old British rhymes and superstitions about the black and white bird.
People say that the amount of magpies you see at a time will predict a persons future.
The superstitions are even more bizarre.
They claim that if you see a magpie and dont salute it, bad luck will follow you.
And if you see a single magpie perched on your home window, it signals loneliness and certain death.
Ravens are smart birds and choose to work in teams when it comes to hunting.
Sometimes two are better than one, and the raven uses its alliance to its advantage.
Scientists have even tested their intelligence with a series of challenging puzzles.
There are ten raven species throughout the world, with two of those inhabiting the United States.
The common raven is the most common… believe it or not.
Red-Billed Chough
Choughs, pronounced chuffs are smart birds that inhabit Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Red-bills have, you guessed it, red beaks.
Choughs have made it onto the smartest bird list because of the extraordinary way they use tools.
Weve mentioned a few birds that use tools to pick out bugs from trees or to move objects around.
Well, the chough takes it to the next level.
Choughs use different objects as tools to break open shells like mollusks.
Rook
Claiming a spot on the smartest bird list is the rook.
The rook is another black-feathered bird that we can distinguish by its featherless white face.
Rooks take a different approach to intelligence.
Unlike other birds on the list, theyre fantastic problem solvers.
Even in garden controls, rooks use their problem-solving skills to their advantage.
Smartest bird or troublesome bird, thats for you to decide.
They inhabit low scrub areas, particularly oak woods, mixed evergreen forests, and pinyon-juniper forests.
Thats not to say, though, that you wont see one in your backyard.
A western scrub-jay in a suburban area isnt a rare sighting.
So, what makes a western scrub-jay an intelligent bird.
Well, like the Clarks nutcracker, their skills revolve around winter food storage.
In the animal world, stealing food from other species is an extremely common thing.
Scrub jays arent stupid, and they know their stash can easily be stolen by other birds or squirrels.
To combat this issue, the scrub jay is always watching its surroundings.
If the jay thinks a bird or animal is watching them stash their food, theyll hide it elsewhere.
The woodpecker finch, however, is small with a small beak-like those in the finch family.
Their main diet consists of worms and grubs that they find inside trees.
They even go as far as to use cactus spines as their foraging tool.
Their tool-using behavior has gained the woodpecker finch the nicknames of carpenter finch and tool-using finch.
From face recognition to tool-assisted foraging, its safe to say that the birds are smarter than we think.
