Fun and Fascinating Facts About Birds

Call someone a bird brain – and you are actually paying them quite the compliment!  Current thinking is that birds have an intelligence level comparable to a four or five year old child.  By comparison, dogs are believed to have an intelligence level equivalent to a 2 year old child. 

Researcher Dr. Irene Pepperberg has demonstrated that her African Grey parrots can answer, in perfect English, questions like how many objects on a tray have two, three or four sides and which colors they are, and what objects are made of-cork, bark, plastic or wood. Her parrot, Alex, after learning his colors, asked, “What color is Alex?” Once told he was gray, he was able to identify other objects that were gray, even though never trained. Once when Alex was 1 ½ years old, he was in his cage when Dr. Pepperberg was hand-feeding some baby parrots. Alex asked, “What are you doing?” She said she was feeding some baby birds. Alex replied, “Alex is a baby bird!”

This video shows Dr. Pepperberg working with Alex as he identifies colors, sizes, shapes and much more.

Would you like more proof that birds can do some pretty amazing things?  Watch this video from Animal Planet.

Not all birds learn as easily as African Gray Parrots.  My brother-in-law John used to have a parakeet named Elvis.   John would literally spend hours attempting to teach Elvis to say “hello.”  The closest Elvis ever came to hello was “wkgrbt!” 

Here are some additional fun and interesting facts about birds:

According to anthropological records, the first birds lived 150 million ago. They were called Archaeopteryx.

Only pet parrots mimic people and noises. Wild parrots do not imitate the sounds they hear.

Ostriches lay the largest eggs of all birds. If you used an ostrich egg to cook with, one ostrich egg would make the equivalent of a 16 egg omelet.

Do you currently or have you ever had a bird for a pet?  I would love to hear about your experience.

Fun and Fascinating Facts About Cats

How much do you really know about cats?  Here are some fun facts to share with the cat lovers in your life!

• The official word for cat lovers is “ailurophile”.
• In ancient Egypt, cats were considered so important that ancient Egyptian family members shaved their eyebrows in mourning when the family cat died.
• The dominate cat in a multi-cat household will always be allowed to sleep in the warmest place in the house.
• A cat’s brain is programmed to detect changes in seasonal sunlight patterns patterns.  These changes directly affect when and how much your cat sheds.  As a result, indoor only cats shed more hair more often than indoor-outdoor cats.
• Studies have shown that diamond-shaped kibble is the most visually appealing to cats.