Birds starting fires?
 

This has been on the internet recently.... Two species of birds in Australia have been seen carrying burning twigs to start fires which flush out prey for them.


.



.

Thanks mrsD.

Australian birds are pretty smart ;).

My first thought was to wonder why there was this sudden spate of articles online in the past week. I figured it was a myth and thought that it must be mentioned in Indigenous stories or the Dreamtime and I wanted to know more. I did find some interesting reading after searching for the name mentioned in the second link. This is probably where it all began. It has more detail...


.

This is a great article and has lots to read in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
That's from 2011


.

2015

Thanks Lara - that is fascinating.

It is fascinating that's for sure.

There was a link in the comments section regarding

"Clever tool use in parrots and crows".
Problem solving by the kea, a New Zealand parrot, and the New Caledonian crow.

.

I did not know that about Kea.

They are certainly very inquisitive - they tend to hang out in carparks in the alpine regions of the South Island - attacking windscreen wipers is a source of fascination for them.

It is well known and I have seen it myself, that gulls will
drop mussels and clams on rocks from above to crack them open.

Aeschylus was killed in 455bc when an Eagle dropped a Tortoise on his bald head, mistaking it for a rock on which to smash it's shell open.

I have seen documentaries showing crows using sticks to solve puzzles and to dig grubs out of holes in trees in the wild:

Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? - Inside …:
.


Dave.

Perhaps we should set the crow and firehawks to solving some of the world's problems...:rolleyes: Most impressive!