Do Birds Know What They Look Like?

[marmar]

Do Birds Know What They Look Like?
A conversation with a bird expert.

BY MARION RENAULT




(Slate) Marianne Williamson really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really likes birds.

So far in 2021, the oddball former presidential candidate and bestselling author has tweeted almost two dozen pictures of birds, many annotated with a simple “Wow” or “No words.” My personal favorite: a multihued Anna’s hummingbird captioned, “Who how what decided what feathers will be red and what feathers will be blue and what feathers will be green?”

Then, a few days ago, Williamson revealed a long-standing concern about her beloved feathered friends: “I know people are going to laugh at me about this,” she wrote, “but it always strikes me how these birds never look in the mirror so they actually have no idea what they look like.”

Which got us wondering: Do birds know what they look like? Slate turned to a bird cognition specialist, Francesca Cornero, to learn where the science stands on avian self-awareness. Cornero, who has Eurasian jays look in the mirror as part of her research at the Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of Cambridge, explained to us just how complicated the question is to answer. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Marion Renault: Maybe we could start with this: Do birds have no idea what they look like?

Francesca Cornero: Well, no, that’s technically false. Most birds have very wide range of eyesight. You’ll notice that many have eyes placed on the side of their heads, or in front, and they tend to have very globular eyes. There’s research onto how widely around them they can see. Of course, it depends on the species and how their eyes are placed, but many, many birds can see actually a great part of their bodies directly. They can look at themselves much like we can and see all the parts of their bodies that are visible to them. .............(more)

https://slate.com/technology/2021/04/birds-self-aware-marianne-williamson.html

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Calm water is a mirror.

[lastlib]

3. I've seen birds practically go to war with their reflection.

One reason they fly into windows is to fight "that other bird" that they think is their reflection. One summer in a scout camp, I watched a cardinal fight its reflection in a car's outside rear-view mirror for seven days. Maybe they uderstand it with water, IDK. But glass is outside their comprehension.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. +1

[Ponietz]

2. Any strutting bird of paradise must know he's a badass

Do butterflies know what they look like? What is knowledge? What is self-awareness?

[AZ8theist]

5. Anyone who asks "who" or "what" gave birds their coloring..

Has an idiots understanding of biological evolution.