Would you expect the cerebrum of a bird to be more or less developed relative to its size than cerebrum of a human? WHY?
216004
Bird < human. The cerebrum is related to higher level processing. Humans have more cognitive abilities than birds, hence more cerebrum
434226
Technically, it would be possible, but likely very delicate.  Experiments are underway to assists people with disabilities, and look promising, but the control is done with very coarse setting like "thinking about talking" and "thinking about moving the foot", so that very distinct area of the brain are involved, so that they are easily distinguished in operation. To go beyond that, and be able to control very delicate instrument with high precision like it was one own limb would probably require going in and tapping the nerves directly; picking up the signal though the thickness of the skull and homing to an area that is measured in millimeter -- let alone singling out one neuron -- is asking too much.
209909
Brain and hair color are little different things, no?
479224
its hard to assign a foot posture to a bird, unless it is a bird that doesnt fly such as a penguin or emu. they have plantigrade foot posture. I do believe other birds are technically plantigrade, but are usually assigned names based on the type of foot. Ie, a raptor would have raptorial feet, a duck palmate, and so on. I would assume bats are the same,but since they dont use their feet for locomotion, its a hard thing to define. good question
421951
While humans are animals there are few things that make us different from the other animals.  Much in the same way cats are different than dogs.\n\nPhysical (not all of these are unique to humans but the combination of all them is)  \nBrain size: brains take up a larger mass relative to size \nour thumbs\nwalk upright on two feet \nno fur (yes we have a little but not much)\nchildhood is much longer\n\nHumans are able to use abstract thoughts more proficiently than our animal cousins (math, art, language)\nWe can refine tools.  Other animals use tools, (chimps elephants) but they don't refine them.\nHumans can pass on information over many generations\n\nThis is not exclusive list, but I believe I have hit some of the most important points
660664
Nope.  As the proportions of the hummingbird gets bigger their weight, which is proportional to volume, also gets bigger.  Strength on the other hand is known to be roughly proportional to the cross section of muscle for any particular limb.  The same calculations are used for weight lifting events, and tell us if a 200 lb athlete did a better lift than a 180 lber.  I\n\nIn addition to all that, the bones also do not increase in nearly as much volume proportionatly as the meat.  The hummingbird would snap its bones trying to flap them that fast, but it probably wouldn't even be able to fly at all.  Because of all these limits on our structures, any animal that big begins taking on the weightlifter build.  For birds, the limit is that of the condor and it glides everywhere it goes.  The albatross is so fat at 30 lbs it already has trouble taking off and landing, so much so that its nickname is the goony bird.  30 lbs :that's the upper limit for birds on Earth right now.   \n\nThe teratorn is the largest bird that's ever been found at 160 - 170 lbs with a 25 foot wingspan and 11 feet from beak to tail, and it's EXTINCT.  We've only found the bones of one located in Argentina.  It seems hard to believe that a bird of that size would even be able to get off the ground, but it all the bones for flight so it must have.  This teratorn was a gliding bird of prey that closely resembled the eagle.  Animals like this and the Ultrasaur show us how what we perceive to be gravity is capable of changing... but that's for another question.
197858
An immature bird has speckled brown feathers all over, the distinctive head and body plumage arriving 2–3 years later, before sexual maturity. Adult females have a wingspan of approximately 2.1 meters (7 feet); adult males have a wingspan of 2 meters (6 feet, 6 inches). Adult females weigh approximately 5.8 kg (12.8 lb), males weigh 4.1 kg (9 lb).\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle
489500
Actually, "smarter" mammal have larger brains in ratio to the size of their body.  If you were to take the ratio of size/weight of a human brain and his body and compare that with an elephant, you would find that a human's ratio is much higher.  I've heard contradicting theories with regard to actual percentage used.  We do in fact use most areas of our brain.  Why other areas are not in use probably have to do with evolution.  What sets us apart from other mammals is the amount of things we create for comfort and not survival.  All animals, there may be case by case exceptions, operate under the need to survive.  We operate under what is comfortable.
539917
Actually, I doubt we'd sit at all.  I'm looking at my parrot, and she has knees that bend backwards.  She just bends her knees on her perch, and when she sleeps she lifts one leg up and tucks it under herself.  I think we'd have a modified perch instead of a chair, and "sit" by getting into a reverse crouching position, just like a bird.
326330
One of the differences is in how much pre-frontal lobe cortex we have. The pre-frontal lobes have to do with "connecting the dots"...logical analysis, association...it allows us to visualize the future, make rationale judgments and plan. For this reason hey call it the "executive" part of the brain. In humans, 33% of the cortex, the thinking part of the brain, is frontal. In chimpanzees, it's only about 10%. That's a huge difference, signifying that humans have a whole lot more of the kind of brain function that produces higher level intelligence.
597003
No.  You get more "wrinkles" in your brain which increases the surface area of the brain without increasing its volume.
19095
I say no. Not to be different but because I actually don't think that they do. The whole... "Living creature" is crap I feel the same way about birds! Look at the meat they are obviously VERY different then a cat or a dog or a cow or a human. I really don't think they feel pain. I say this because look at the environment they live in. It can be 10 or 110 degrees out and a bird still flies & a fish still swims. If it had the same pain perception that mammals have don't you think it would be painful to be in these temps? Or maybe they would adapt to one or the other?
403
The fact that female mammals produce milk for their young means that at birth a mammal can have a relatively large brain, although they are relatively helpless.  Other animals have to be able to at least get around.\n\nBrains don't grow as much as other parts of the body, which is why babies seem to have large heads.\n\nThe obvious counter-example is birds, where the young are stuck in the nest and depend on their parents for food.  However, flight puts a limit on how heavy a bird can be, and so how heavy its brain can be.  But flightless birds are a possible candidate.\n\nAmphibians and reptiles are cold-blooded, which seems as though it would rule out our sort of intelligence.  On the other hand, perhaps an intelligent crocodile would think of slowing down when the temperature drops much as we think of sleep.  Remember that a large brain would mean a large egg (and you have to fit the rest of the body inside the egg as well).
273615
it's an argument that's as old as it is contentious: that male and female brains work differently.\n\nMichael Gurian, psychologist and author of "What Could He Be Thinking?" believes there are about a hundred structural differences that have been identified between the male and female brain.\n\n"Men, because we tend to compartmentalize our communication into a smaller part of the brain, we tend to be better at getting right to the issue," he said.\n\n"The more female brain (will) gather a lot of material, gather a lot of information, feel a lot, hear a lot, sense a lot," he said.\n\nScientists say males have more activity in mechanical centers of the brain, whereas females show more activity in verbal and emotional centers.\n\nThe differences can be noticed from early childhood, Gurian said, such as when an adult gives a child a doll.\n\n"That doll becomes life-like to that girl, but you give it to a two-year-old boy and you are more likely, not all the time, but you are more likely than not to see that boy try to take the head off the doll," he said.\n\n"He thinks spatial-mechanical. He's using the doll as an object".\n\nTo find out why these differences exist, scientists have taken voyages deep inside the gray matter using MRI scans.\n\nThe scans show that in most women, the corpus callosum area, which handles communication between the brain's two "hemispheres", is larger.\n\nIn layman's terms, it means that the two sides of the female brain "talk" better to each other -- which could explain why studies show women tend to multi-task better.\n\nOn the other hand, the scans show men tend to move information more easily within each hemisphere.\n\nIt all boils down to genes, according to Dr. Marianne Legato Partnership for Gender Specific Medicine Columbia University.\n\nWomen are born with two X chromosomes, and men with an X and a Y.\n\n"And on that Y chromosome are at least 21 unique genes unique to males which control many of the body's operations down to the level of the cells," Dr Legato said.\n\nShe also said those genetic differences explain other differences, like why men can drink more alcohol than women without becoming intoxicated.\n\n"Women do not have the enzyme in their stomach that degrades alcohol which men have," she said.\n\nUnfortunately it doesn't explain why some men leave the toilet seat up, or some women can't take out the garbage.
261455
They come from the stem of the brain.
276899
If you think about it-you see thousands of humans every week-probably, I would guess, something like 10,000 times more humans than any other animal..and yet how often have you seen a human drop from a heart attack, or even the much more common falling from a dizzy spell?  It isn't a common enough occurance to see regularly- Occasionally you will see a bird out of a large flock dropping, usually in a controlled manner- A bird will drop to the ground when it start to feel ill..it won't usually just fly until it drops or passes out.  I have found numerous birds that appeared stunned.  Most were likely from hitting windows, but I can't be sure of that.  From speaking to my veternarian friends, on average humans are more healthy, not less, than the great majority of animals-and if you add in animals in the wild, it's not even close.  Many, if not most, wild animals suffer from parasites of various kinds, and often from infections and poorly healed injuries.  It has nothing at all to do with exercise-pets that live in a house, and get much less exercise than feral dogs and cats live much longer, healthier lives.  The effect of better diet, less stress, modern health care is a much larger factor in health than exercise is-as is obvious from the fact that, even though humans get much less exercise now than 100 years ago, we live much much longer.  That being said, the combination of better diet, less stress, modern medicine *and* plenty of exercise is better still.
537875
It depends on the bird. As a general rule, predatory birds have their vision focussed forward (eg, owls, hawks, eagles) while herbivorous bird have a wider arc of vision, including to the sides of their bodies. (That is, the higher on the food chain a species of bird is, the more likely thay have specialised to see forward of their bodies.) In both instances, the bird's brain combines and interprets the world in a useful way for the bird. They are not 'seeing forwards' or 'seeing sideways' - they are seeing in a way useful for that species. \n\n(As a matter of comparison, human females interpret a wider arc of vision than male humans - hence the reason why men are sometimes described as not being able to find something 'right under their nose'. Women don't "see sideways", their brains just interpret visual information from a wider lateral angle.)