Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 135 species are included in this family. The genus Corvus containing 47 species makes up over a third of the entire family. Corvids (ravens) are the largest passerines.
The Australian magpie is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea, and introduced to New Zealand. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subspecies. A member of the Artamidae, the Australian magpie is placed in its own genus Gymnorhina and is most closely related to the black butcherbird. It is not closely related to the European magpie, which is a corvid.
The Eurasian magpie or common magpie is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies. In Europe, "magpie" is used by English speakers as a synonym for the Eurasian magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie, which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula. Despite having a shared name and close appearance, it is not closely related to the Australian Magpie.
The white-winged chough is one of only two surviving members of the Australian mud-nest builders family, Corcoracidae, and is the only member of the genus Corcorax. It is native to southern and eastern Australia and is an example of convergent evolution as it is only distantly related to the European choughs that it closely resembles in shape, and for which it was named.
Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influenced by research in ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology; the alternative name cognitive ethology is sometimes used. Many behaviors associated with the term animal intelligence are also subsumed within animal cognition.
The Panamanian white-faced capuchin, also known as the Panamanian white-headed capuchin or Central American white-faced capuchin, is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae. Native to the forests of Central America, the white-faced capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen.
The term laterality refers to the preference most humans show for one side of their body over the other. Examples include left-handedness/right-handedness and left/right-footedness; it may also refer to the primary use of the left or right hemisphere in the brain. It may also apply to animals or plants. The majority of tests have been conducted on humans, specifically to determine the effects on language.
John Hurrell Crook was a British ethologist who filled a pivotal role in British primatology.
The tawny frogmouth is a species of frogmouth native to the Australian mainland and Tasmania and found throughout. It is a big-headed, stocky bird often mistaken for an owl due to its nocturnal habits and similar colouring.
The badge on the Flag of South Australia depicts the rising sun, and a Piping Shrike standing on a branch of a gum tree. The Piping Shrike is more commonly known as a White-backed Magpie.
Anecdotal cognitivism is a method of research using anecdotal, and anthropomorphic evidence through the observation of animal behaviour.
Talking birds are birds that can mimic the speech of humans. There is debate within the scientific community over whether some talking parrots also have some cognitive understanding of the language. Birds have varying degrees of talking ability: some, like the corvids, are able to mimic only a few words and phrases, while some budgerigars have been observed to have a vocabulary of almost 2,000 words. The hill myna, a common pet, is well known for its talking ability and its relative, the European starling, is also adept at mimicry. Wild cockatoos in Australia have been reported to have learned human speech by cultural transmission from ex-captive birds that have integrated into the flock.
Tool use by non-humans is a phenomenon in which a non-human animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, grooming, combat, defence, communication, recreation or construction. Originally thought to be a skill possessed only by humans, some tool use requires a sophisticated level of cognition. There is considerable discussion about the definition of what constitutes a tool and therefore which behaviours can be considered true examples of tool use. A wide range of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods, and insects, are considered to use tools.
Paul Garber is a primatologist and the author and editor of several books and articles about primates. He is a professor at the University of Illinois. He is editor of the American Journal of Primatology and director of research and education at La Suerte Biological Field School in Costa Rica. Books he has authored or edited include New Perspectives in the Study of Mesoamerican Primates: Distribution, Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation , On the Move: How and Why Animals Travel in Groups, Adaptive Radiations of Neotropical Primates. and South American Primates: Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation In 2014, he co-edited two books on howler monkeys. He has also studied interrelationships between the moustached tamarin and the saddleback tamarin.
Artamidae is a family of passerine birds found in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and Southern Asia. It includes 24 extant species in six genera and three subfamilies: Peltopsinae, Artaminae and Cracticinae. Artamids used to be monotypic, containing only the woodswallows, but it was expanded to include the family Cracticidae in 1994. Some authors, however, still treat the two as separate families. Some species in this family are known for their beautiful song. Their feeding habits vary from nectar sucking (woodswallows) to predation on small birds.
The Australian magpie is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Three subspecies, including both black-backed and white-backed magpies, were introduced to New Zealand from the 1860s to control pests in pastures. They are now spread through much of the two main islands of the country.
Kurrartapu johnnguyeni is an extinct species of bird in the Australian magpie and butcherbird family. It was described from Early Miocene material found at Riversleigh in north-western Queensland, Australia. It is the first Tertiary record of a cracticid from Australia. The size of the fossil material indicates that it was similar in size to the living black butcherbird. The generic name is a Kalkatungu language term for the Australian magpie. The specific epithet honours John Nguyen, the father of the senior describer.
Lesley Joy Rogers is a neurobiologist and emeritus professor of neuroscience and animal behaviour at the University of New England.
Rescue behaviour is a form of altruistic behaviour shown by animals where an individual in distress is aided appropriately by another individual which puts itself at risk in the process. The term "rescue behaviour" was first introduced in the title and in the text of a paper by Wojciech Czechowski, Ewa Joanna Godzińska and Marek Kozłowski (2002) that reported the results of field observations and experiments documenting this behaviour in workers of three ant species, Formica sanguinea, Formica fusca and Formica cinerea that were observed to try to rescue individuals captured by antlion larvae. Criteria allowing to tell apart rescue behaviour from other forms of cooperation and altruism were subsequently provided by Elise Nowbahari and Karen L. Hollis.
