Amanda HeidtHuman beings typically don’t leave the nest until well into our teenage years—a relatively rare strategy among animals.
But corvids—a group of birds that includes jays, ravens, and crows—also spend a lot of time under their parents’ wings. Now, in a parallel to humans, researchers have found that ongoing tutelage by patient parents may explain how corvids have managed to achieve their smarts.Corvids are large, big-brained birds that often live in intimate social groups of related and unrelated individuals.
They are known to be intelligent—capable of using tools, recognizing human faces, and even understanding physics—and some researchers believe crows may rival apes for smarts.Meanwhile, humans continue to grow their big brains.