Are Crows and Parrots Really the Smartest Birds?
Parrots and corvids have long been hailed as the undisputed geniuses of the bird world, but a new analysis reveals that 98 percent of species haven’t even had their intelligence tested.
By Georgia Good
Editorial Fellow, Audubon magazine
Published November 03, 2026
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Kelsey McCune wanted to study smart birds, so naturally, she turned to corvids. While working on a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology at the University of Washington, she made a puzzle box out of a log, complete with little compartments, doors, and a grand prize: peanuts. Her goal was to test wild Mexican Jays’ and California Scrub-Jays’ problem-solving skills—a classic case of certified smart birds being smart.
“But all these other species would come and interact with the puzzle box, too,” McCune says, including towhees, chickadees, and Downy Woodpeckers. “Sometimes they would come in and solve the problem before the jays.” Later, when McCune studied Great-tailed Grackles, which belong to the blackbird family, they also performed just as well as, or better than, corvids at similar tasks. This prompted some existential questions for the young avian cognition researcher. Like: Are we really so sure we know which birds are the smartest?
As it turns out, maybe not. Researchers studying avian intelligence—and many birders—tend to consider corvids and parrots the smartest birds. But if other birds’ intelligence hasn’t been properly studied, that claim doesn’t mean much. So McCune and her colleague, Jeffrey Katz, reviewed all experimental avian cognition research from the last 25 years—a total of 937 studies. And the results are humbling.
The Avian Cognition Gap
Of the more than 11,000 known bird species in the world, just 194—or fewer than 2 percent—have been studied in avian cognition research, according to their analysis. Not only that, but researchers have studied species from less than a third of all bird families. The most-studied family was Corvidae (crows, ravens, magpies, and jays), followed by Columbidae (pigeons and doves), Paridae (tits and chickadees), Phasianidae (chickens, quail, and pheasants), and Psittacidae (parrots). Together, these five families made up 64 percent of all studies. And even within these families, a few species tended to be overrepresented; there are 306 Columbidae species, for example, yet all but three of the 135 Columbidae studies were on Rock Pigeons.
Of the more than 11,000 known bird species in the world, just 194 have been studied in avian cognition research.
A further blow to claims of corvid supremacy: Only five studies have directly compared them to other families, and the results were mixed. Corvids came out on top in two studies, but their achievements in cognition tests were equaled by non-corvids in two others. And in one 2024 study, which challenged 15 species to access snacks by overcoming a variety of obstacles, including flipping lids and removing sticks, Blue Jays were outperformed by five songbirds: Black-capped Chickadees, European Starlings, Gray Catbirds, American Robins, and the test’s top problem solver, Tufted Titmice. However, because species have so rarely been directly compared, it’s hard to make definitive statements about who’s the smartest.
To be clear, corvids and parrots are impressive; they’ve shown cognitive abilities equal to those of primates, including human children. Crows, the poster child of corvid intelligence, can use and make tools, count out loud, and understand recursion, which is key to human grammar, plus a litany of other remarkable feats. Parrots, too, can count, build tools, and use deductive reasoning. These birds are certainly smart—it's just that others might be equally bright.
Why We Test the Same Birds
Early twentieth century cognitive scientists, who established the field of avian cognition research, help explain why researchers have historically focused on the same species. They studied birds to understand intelligence more broadly, and pigeons and quails quickly became staple lab subjects, says McCune: They were cheap and easy to breed, had simple diets for caretaking, and tolerated confinement well. The twenty-first century saw a dramatic rise in corvid-focused lab experiments, after decades of anecdotal evidence of the family’s intelligence. To this day, these three families remain the most common in cognitive research—and it’s easier to build on existing knowledge than start fresh with new species. “These birds are easy to acquire,” McCune says. “You don't need strict permits. The methods for testing questions in these species are well-developed.”
Once certain species have a brainiac reputation, McCune theorizes, scientists are more likely to study them.
Plus, outside the lab, we just see them more in our everyday lives, McCune points out. “Because of that, we’re better able to observe behaviors that we perceive as surprisingly smart,” she says. American Crows and Rock Doves are ubiquitous in urban environments, giving us plenty of opportunities to observe their behaviors—from pigeons’ impressive flight patterns, to crows that drop nuts onto roads to be cracked open by cars, or “gift” us shiny objects in exchange for food. Similarly, humans know parrots well through the pet trade, she notes: “We can closely observe them, and they can mimic human speech, which makes us feel like they're smart, like us.”
Once certain species have a brainiac reputation, McCune theorizes, scientists are more likely to study them (herself included). Much of what we think we know about who’s smartest could, in fact, be a case of confirmation bias.
Finding Feeder Geniuses
But with more researchers studying birds in the wild, and microchip tagging technologies improving, it's getting easier to research new species. “We know very little about some extremely common species,” McCune says, including many backyard birds like the Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, and Downy Woodpecker. She's doing her part to change that.
In an ongoing study, her team is tagging several species of wild birds, which then have the opportunity to investigate several computerized feeders. Every feeder scans the tags to make a log of which birds approach which devices—but only one feeder will actually dispense food. McCune hopes to learn which, if any, of the species catch on. The new tech, she says, “will allow us to measure the same cognitive trait in a community of birds, instead of just one species in isolation.”
There is more at stake than just a smart-bird leaderboard.
There is more at stake than just a smart-bird leaderboard. Looking ahead, McCune says, “the more we know about how birds see and navigate the world, the better we can design conservation strategies to help them to deal with the way that we're changing it.” As birds face habitat loss, disrupted migration routes, and altered food supplies, their ability to adapt is critical. By studying behavioral flexibility in many species, she suggests, we might better understand which birds are likely to do well in a changing world, and how we can support them.
And in the meantime, by knowing what they don’t know, scientists are in a better position to explore the minds of all birds—not just those that we already recognize as stunningly smart, but the many more that might be, too.
