Interesting follow-on to Sunday’s post about dogs & cognitive/ethical systems: it turns out our feathered friends are also capable of more sophisticated cognition than had been thought.
Mockingbirds mark & remember humans who have menaced their nests. When those humans return to the vicinity of the nest, the birds not only sound a warning, they stage preemptive strikes.
& they don’t attack just everyone who comes near, they go after the proven threats & just keep a wary eye on everyone else. If you’ve messed with the nest, it doesn’t matter if you change your hairstyle or wear different clothes—they’re coming after you like Stukas on a column of retreating French infantry.
So "birdbrain" is apparently as accurate an epithet as "eats like a bird" applies to delicate appetites. (Birds eat huge amounts proportionate to their weight every day in order to have the energy to fly.)
I think the walls are closing in on the humans-are-superior crowd who think animals are here to serve our purposes. The thing that seems to give us the advantage appears to be that opposing thumb—& maybe language. We don’t have a lock on sensibilities & our capacity for evil & cruelty definitely counts against us in the “we’re-godlike” argument.
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