“Birds breeding in city centres, or “urban adapters” … were found to have larger brains relative to their body size.
Previous studies have highlighted the link between larger brains and behavioural innovation in birds and mammals.
Scientists say this new evidence is the first to show that brain size is a key factor for animals’ survival in urban environments.”
— “Adaptable urban birds have bigger brains,” Ella Davies, BBC Earth News
Related?:
“Human Facial Expression From the Perspective of a Pigeon,” Kara Rogers, Britannica blog
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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NotionsCapital 
April 29, 2011 at 11:50 am
I am something of a bio-sciences geek, so I find things like this especially interesting. London cabbies have different adaptations to their hippocampi, and of course there appear to be differences in the brains of conservatives and liberals which track with their political psychology.
(http://penigma.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-all-in-your-head.html)
Birds and humans have some interesting factors in common in our language centers in the brain.
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060427/birds.shtml
Love your stuff, especially your visuals!
April 29, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Yeah, but city pigeons are still birdbrains…
April 29, 2011 at 7:52 pm
HL wrote: city pigeons are still birdbrains
But birdbrains with attitude.
I believe that is the definition of “hipster” …..
April 30, 2011 at 2:23 pm
UPDATE:
“Now there’s a scientific explanation for why Big Bird chooses to live in downtown Manhattan.” Sara Reardon, Science Now