Clever Crows: Research reveals birdbrains can count and plan ahead much like toddlers

New research suggests that crows, often underestimated in their cognitive abilities, possess a surprising talent: the ability to count and plan their actions based on numerical cues, akin to how toddlers learn to tally objects.

Led by a team from the University of Tübingen’s animal physiology lab in Germany, the study sheds light on the intricate intelligence of these urban birds.

The study, published in the journal Science, unveils that not only can crows count up to four vocally, but they can also match the number of calls they make with corresponding numerical cues. This finding challenges the notion that humans alone possess skills such as numerical thinking and abstraction.

Diana Liao, the study’s lead author and a neurobiologist at the Tübingen lab, drew inspiration from observing toddlers learning to count and previous research on chickadees tailoring their alarm calls to predator size.

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The study involved training three carrion crows over multiple sessions to associate visual and auditory cues with numbers from one to four, demonstrating that the birds could produce the corresponding number of calls within a specified timeframe.

Remarkably, the crows exhibited signs of planning ahead, adjusting their reaction times based on the number of vocalisations required. Even their errors mirrored those of humans, further highlighting the validity of their cognitive abilities.

These findings challenge traditional views of animal cognition, suggesting that crows possess the capacity for structured communication and planning. While further research is needed to fully understand the extent of crow intelligence, this study opens new avenues for exploring the depths of avian cognition.

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For decades, scientists have marveled at the ingenuity of crows, from their tool-making prowess to their complex vocalisations. This latest research adds another layer to our understanding of these remarkable birds, prompting us to rethink our assumptions about animal intelligence.