Name: The Surprising Power of a Bird Brain
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NOVA

Similar to humans and other animals with higher intelligence, the executive center of a bird's brain allows them to strategize and organize ideas.

Bird brains may be tiny, but they pack in as many—or more—neurons as much larger animals.

The Surprising Power of a Bird Brain

Surprising Power of a Bird Brain

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Similar to humans and other animals with higher intelligence, the executive center of a bird's brain allows them to strategize and organize ideas.

Bird brains may be tiny, but they pack in as many—or more—neurons as much larger animals.

Nature

The Surprising Power of a Bird BrainPublished: August 28, 2025NARRATOR: Compared to other birds, parrots and crows have large brains in relation to their body size. And scientists believe that may be one reason why they can work out solutions to problems they don't encounter in the wild. Most bird brains are small, but they have one critical area in common with humans and other animals with higher intelligence.JOHN MARZLUFF: The executive center of the bird's brain really allows them to make plans and strategies and organize ideas.NARRATOR: Bird brains may be tiny, but for their size they seem to contain more brain cells or neurons than many other animals.JOHN MARZLUFF: The number of neurons is a better indication of brain power than the physical size of the brain. And this is an interesting thing we've learned recently that bird brains actually pack a lot more neurons into a particular area than do mammal brains. So even though they're physically very small in size, they have a lot of punch in that size.

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The Surprising Power of a Bird Brain

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