I have heard that crows are very smart. How do the other birds know how to follow each other? Birds never seem to be alone. It’s always a crow that comes first when I put bread out.
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Instinct.
All animals, including humans, have certain innate understanding of body language and certain vocalizations (laughing, cries of surprise or terror, aggressive posturing, a baby crying, etc.). All animals can also learn to react to newer and more nuanced cues, but it’s just humans have *extremely* advanced, specialized brains that can learn vastly more complex forms of communication. We tend to assume other animals do as well, but this is largely a mistake, and no other animals are currently known to be able to “talk” to each other like we do on that sort of level.
In bird’s cases, though we’re not yet sure if exactly how much they can learn (some birds are extremely intelligent and adaptable), they are able to observe and learn behavior that gets them food or avoid danger, but mostly behave on that more instinctual level.
My hens have different clucks and cries for finding a food source, for alerting each other to danger (hawks in the sky, a snake in the henhouse, etc), or for communicating mood or if they’re in pain or content. They have also learned how to “read” me and if I look like I’m holding a handful of treat grains, the one that noticed calls the rest over.
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