WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Once meant as an insult, being called “bird brain” should really be considered a compliment, especially if the bird in question is a Black-capped Chickadee. Scientists have amassed decades of research demonstrating the cognitive powers of these small, feisty birds.
courtesy photo
As year-round northeastern residents, chickadees prepare for winter by hiding food in multiple locations, a practice also known as scatter hoarding. This tactic requires a keen memory, and chickadees can remember thousands of storage sites. But how do they do it?
Each autumn, Black-capped Chickadees grow new neurons in their hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for memory. These new cells provide extra room for memory storage and cause the hippocampus to expand by roughly 30%. As food stores decline leading up to spring and the need for massive memory space dwindles, the cells containing old information die off.
Most recently, scientists at Columbia University uncovered a new secret to Black-capped Chickadees’ astonishingly sharp memory: barcodes. The researchers found that a chickadee’s hippocampus will briefly light up with the same unique pattern when hiding a food item and when retrieving it later, similar to scanning an item at the grocery store. They also noticed neurons firing in a specific, repeated pattern based on whether the storage site had a seed.
So, as you go about your early-winter wanderings, take a second to watch the chickadees flitting among the trees and marvel at the amazing brains helping them thrive all winter long.
Kent McFarland
Kent McFarland is a member of the staff at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
