Entities › Animals and other organisms › Birds
Rock pigeon
Columba livia
Hundreds of millions of neurons in a small brain. Pigeons can sort complex images into categories.
- Neurons
- 310 million measured · whole brain (isotropic fractionator)Olkowicz S et al. (2016). Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain. PNAS 113:7255-7260. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517131113.
- In the cerebral cortex (or bird pallium)
- about 72 million (pallium, derived from telencephalon counts)Olkowicz S et al. (2016). Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain. PNAS 113:7255-7260. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517131113.
The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024) finds strong scientific support for conscious experience in mammals and birds.