I enjoyed the story.
I am not a bird. I have as many feathers as I have gears, and I am definitely not a robot. I am also not a bird-lover, but I do have an affinity for the weird, and anyone who has observed the mating dance of the bird of paradise or the Japanese crane knows that birds are weird.
Our host this week made a comment about the intelligence of the avian among us, who are, unfortunately unable to speak for themselves. So, like the Lorax, who speaks for the trees, and Ender Wiggin, who speaks for the dead, I will speak for the birds.
But, lo, can they not speak for themselves? In the ancient days of yore, when Poe had his reputation to restore, was it not a raven who quoth: "Nevermore"? Was it not Capitan Flint, the Parrot, who out foxed Jim Hawkins in the blockhouse of Skull Island with his heralded battle cry of "Pieces of Eight!" when Long John Silver was powerless against Jim's boyish spunk?
And as for intelligence, why, according to 'Tools and brains in birds' published in 2002, there are over 39 species of birds that can use tools. That is 38 more tool-using species of birds than there are species of
Homo sapiens altogether. In fact, one study performed by scientists and published that particularly anti-avian crown of people known as editors, shows that the common rook can not only use tools, but manufacture tools and use metatools. Now, 'metatool' may sound like a word manufactured by humans to appear more intelligent than birds, but it's not. It simply means, using a tool to get another tool. According to the study (
Insightful problem solving and creative tool modification by captive nontool-using rooks, PNAS 2009), rooks used stones to displace water to retrieve a meal worm. They also used a hook to pull a bucket out of water to retrieve a meal, and when provided with a straight wire, they made hooks, three out for four birds manufacturing a proper hook on the first attempt.
So, look on the works of birds, ye Mighty, and despair! and underestimate not their intelligence, lest they make a birdbrain out of you.