Birdbrain doesn't equal stupid

Birds are not stupid and their brains are not primitive, so it is about time the scientific world gave them full credit, experts say.

An international group of avian experts took on the slow-moving world of scientific nomenclature, calling for a new map of the avian brain that reflects its true structure.

The current system dates back 100 years and suggests a bird's brain is mostly basal ganglia, and that this area controls primitive brain function and instinctive behaviour.

In fact neither is true -- the bird brain more closely resembles the human brain, and even so, the basal ganglia is not a primitive region, said Erich Jarvis of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

"Stop calling people birdbrains meaning stupid. Take it as a compliment," Jarvis said.

Jarvis, who studies how birds learn vocalisations such as songbird songs and imitated speech in parrots, said their behaviour can be surprisingly complex.

They can use tools, they can use songs and imitate human language to communicate, and they can count.

"They can lie -- you can teach a pigeon to do something that will have another pigeon get food for a reward. You can find a female pigeon that will pretend a reward for food is coming and then she eats it instead of her mate," Jarvis said.

He said some birds have evolved cognitive abilities that are far more complex than in many mammals.

"A lot went into trying to support the idea of a human's place in the evolutionary scheme of animals. They didn't follow Darwin's view that evolution was a tree," Jarvis said.

They tried to link it to religion -- a linear system where god created one creature, not good enough, then created another creature, not good enough and then created human -- perfect," he added.

"It was a beautiful story but it wasn't true."