Birds And Their Astonishing Memory

Birds And Their Astonishing Memory

Birds And Their Astonishing Memory

Even though squirrels are famously know for their ability to store seeds and nuts into the ground in preparation for the winter. But, what many people don't know is that birds store seeds for later retrieval as well.

Acorns are one of the favorite seeds for birds to store. In fact, they are one of the more nutritious seeds around. This is why, left undisturbed, they will grow up to be the giant oak trees that we know and love. But even though acorns are nutritious, birds cannot eat a lot at one time.

The reason for this is that if birds add on too many ounces to their normal weight, they will not be able to fly as well. Therefore, if there is an excess of seeds around, they have to figure out a way to store it. And many of birds have come up with their own techniques for doing so.

For a perfect illustration of this, look at the jay. If it discovers an acorn, it will search around the grounds, select what it considers to be a good spot, excavate a tiny and shallow hole, place the seed in it, and cover it with dirt to hide it. In order to be able to find it later, it memorizes the signposts around the seed. In the future, when it needs to find food, it recalls the location of these signposts and scratches around in the dirt until it locates the seed that it has stored.

This exemplifies the exceptional and specialized memory that some birds have - both when it comes to finding nuts and seeds that they have stored previously, as well as their ability find their way back to their homing grounds when dropped off in unfamiliar surroundings. At any rate, as good as their memory is, they will undoubtedly miss some of the seeds that they store. These are the seeds that end up taking root and giving birth to a new oak tree.

It is interesting that the term 'bird brain' as come to mean a person of limited intelligence. But, the average person would probably be amazed at the number of seeds that a bird can store in a season and then later have the ability to recall where they stored them.

As a matter of fact, nature researchers have documented some birds stashing away over a hundred thousand seeds or nuts during the course of a season. And, as you may very well believe, it can be a daunting task to try to remember where you stored even a fraction of that amount. But for the most part, birds manage it nicely. And the fact that they do this without the aid of pen and paper makes the entire task even more amazing.

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