There was a recent article in the Washington Post that said scientists have figured out that birds don't really have "bird brains" .... Can't remember the precise terminology, I'm afraid, but the part of the brain that "thinks" in humans was presumed for decades -- centuries? -- to be taken up entirely by instinctual patterns of behavior in birds. They've somehow figured out that it's capable of "thinking" whatever that means.

At least I got to say ha ha to Bill, who has disagreed with me over the years as to whether birds were "really thinking" when I pointed out situations where birds took in information and acted on it. Fr'instance we had a pet bird whose beak couldn't open safflower seeds without several tries. They would fly out of her beak & land on the floor. When she was out of the cage, I would often pick them up and put them back in her reach. Eventually she got to where she would eat other seeds at her perch, but if she picked up a safflower seed she brought it over and ate it next to the computer keyboard so I could be readily available pick it up if it went flying. That's not instinctive behavior for a bird! I believe she had an "idea," even if it was just a mental picture of something that COULD happen, which she acted on. She was a finch, too, not a parrot or big bird.