From one of my favorite blogs:
The Chickadee Brain
Are you also the type of person who, in this
age of information overload, tucks tidbits of interest into the files of your
brain, intending to follow up on them later?
Only to forget until something occurs to jostle the memory files? Maybe I need a brain more like that of the
chickadee, expanding and contracting and adapting as needed by the season.
So the black-capped chickadees
(Poecile
atricapillus) are back at the feeders, and so is my memory of
reading something extraordinary about the chickadee brain last year and wanting
to investigate. Of all the wild birds that visit, the chickadees seem to be the most fearless
and friendly. In fact, they’re often the
only ones that aren’t afraid to approach even after I’ve appeared on the deck,
pointing a camera at them.
Frustratingly, they are also among the quickest and most reluctant to
pose.
Research done by Professor Colin
Saldanha, now at American University, showed that the chickadee’s brain can grow
up to 30% larger during times when they need to find food for storage. The brain is expanding, adding new nerve
cells, in order to help them remember
the hundreds of hiding places where they’ve stored the food. Then, in the spring, the brain shrinks back
to normal size, when their memories are needed less.
Another study, done by Vladamir Pradosudov at University of
Nevada in Reno showed that when birds live in harsher conditions, such as
Alaska, they not only find more food than those in milder climates, but they’re
better at finding their caches, have better spatial memories, and have larger
brains than the same species in Colorado.
I would never say that I want my
brain to shrink, but wouldn’t mind being able to shed some of the mental baggage
and unproductive ways of thinking that marked the past year. Out with the old, in with the new! Make room for more meshugaas!
Wishing you an open-minded, peaceful and rejuvenating New
Year.
nyakbackyard @gmail.com
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