“He’s a bird brain” was meant as an insult for generations. Apologies, please. That bird may be smarter than you think. In fact, there is at present, in my opinion, a major re-thinking about animal intelligence, as well as of animal cultures, in general. I touched on this in my essay book, Truth and Fantasy. There is far too much written on the subject to review it here. Although there have been differing opinions on interpretation, look, for example, at Irene Pepperberg’s book on the grey parrot, Alex. In her many years of working with Alex, she reports an incredible ability of the parrot to understand and reason. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The article by Darren Incorvaia in the New York Times Science Section this week caught my attention about the self-awareness of roosters. The article also includes information about self-awareness of primates. If a rooster sees other chickens in the area, it crows as a warning that a hawk is in the neighborhood. However, if there are no chickens in sight, the rooster stays quiet, not to draw attention to himself. The remarkable finding is that if the rooster sees himself in the mirror, he will remain quiet in the presence of a hawk, presumably recognizing in the mirror that he is looking at himself, not another rooster. He’s no dummy, that bird! He’s self-aware, and who knows what else is in his mind?

Take it for what it’s worth. We aren’t the only self-aware, intelligent living beings on the planet. We think, we feel, we imagine. Our smarts and emotions came from somewhere, and we can thank our ancestors along the evolutionary tree for their foundational contributions of the gifts that make us human.