• Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Any bird who lives primarily in the water is dumb as shit. They have unlimited protection above and around them, so they have zero adaptive pressure to put anything into their intelligence. Land birds have a lot to worry about so their brains are approaching human levels of intellect.

    • PrincessZelda@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If the land birds get any smarter they’re going to have to start worrying about a whole lot more. Like taxes, or rent.

      • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I mean some birds have been shown exchanging money for goods and services, so it’s not that far off.

    • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month to my knowledge and I don’t spend long in my bedroom outside sleeping. Land birds aren’t smart outside of a few select species lol

    • BigNote@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Not true at all. There’s tons of adaptive pressure. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t see the thousands of pelagic and shorebird species that we do. But even if what you say about the threat from predation were true --its not-- there would still be adaptive pressure from differential reproduction rates and access to nutrients.

      • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Which is why you see ducks with all their spec points into r—ing and not getting r–ed. Yes they’re adapting but not to the environment.

  • FUCKRedditMods@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m sure there’s some seagull out there with a 1000-yard stare who went through the most fucked up shit of his life in the 90’s and still remembers it like it was yesterday. He hangs out down by the bars and drinks discarded alcohol out of the trash, trying to forget, and then flies around drunk bumping into things.

    The other seagulls look at him and shake their heads with pity “he used to be such a good gull… so full of promise.”

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Too soon, too soon, too soon.

      He stole food from Madonna too soon.

      Too young, too young, too soon too soon.

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know that I’d trust an ornathologist to know how the brain chemistry works. But I do trust that they’re dumb. Lacking memory isn’t predictive of being dumb, but there’s probably some correlation. Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.

    • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ornithologists do actual science, they aren’t just bird watchers. An ornithologist is pretty much the only one I would trust about this because they are the ones studying the birds.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.

      My spirit animal

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They’re probably smarter than most people.

  • TopShelfVanilla@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    They have enough thought process to play. Watch them fly. They play in the thermals. Do all manner of aerobatics. They know how to steal from humans. That’s not “dumb”.