no birdbrains

More snippets for the background:

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Crows prove they are no birdbrains

Excerpts: The crow is putting our closest cousins to shame.Experiments show the humble bird is better than the chimp at toolmaking. British zoologists were astonished when a captive crow called Betty fashioned a hook out of wire to reach food. It is the first time any animal has been found to make a new tool for a specific task, say Oxford University researchers. They believe the bird shows some understanding of cause and effect.

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Birds may have a basic understanding of physics, recent research by Oxford zoologists suggests. (…) the researchers report the findings of an experiment in which New Caledonian crows bent wires to make hooks appropriate to retrieve food from a cylinder. This is the first time any animal has been found to show some understanding of cause and effect, and to make a new tool for a specific task. The experiment built on a chance observation, when a captive female crow spontaneously bent a piece of wire and successfully used it to lift food from a vertical pipe.