Big-brained birds 'cope better'
Bird experts in Washington have found that bigger brains are better when it comes to dealing with a new environment.
The international team studied reports from birdwatchers around the world, gathering data on brain mass from almost 2,000 species.
In more than 600 introductions of nearly 200 bird species into new habitats, they found that species with brains large relative to their body size tended to survive better in new environments than smaller-brained birds.
Examples include the introduction in the 19th century of the European starling to North America.
"Overall, our results provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that enlarged brains function, and hence may have evolved, to deal with changes in the environment," they wrote in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers last month published an IQ index guide to birds that show corvids - birds from the crow family including ravens and jays - are by far the cleverest birds.
Next on the list are hawks, woodpeckers and herons.
Partridges, new world quails, emus and ostriches are the dolts of the bird world.