I wonder what they thought of furbies

The 90s are nothing. I remember a flock of seagulls from the 80s that are still flying around.

They just flew (so far away).
- Hello, fellow old people. My 10 year old is sporting that cut, unironicaly.
- Spoiler alert: they couldn't get away.

Any bird who lives primarily in the water is dumb as shit. They have unlimited protection above and around them, so they have zero adaptive pressure to put anything into their intelligence. Land birds have a lot to worry about so their brains are approaching human levels of intellect.

If the land birds get any smarter they're going to have to start worrying about a whole lot more. Like taxes, or rent.
- I mean some birds have been shown exchanging money for goods and services, so it's not that far off.
A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month to my knowledge and I don’t spend long in my bedroom outside sleeping. Land birds aren’t smart outside of a few select species lol
- In all seriousness that's more of a sensory limitation than an intelligence limitation. IIRC birds' eyes work differently from mammals and they can't see glass pretty much at all.
- Put some stickers on your window
- Wtf. Would you please do something about that?
- Funny story, never hit a bird with my car in Quebec, until I drove into Manitoba, where I proceeded to wack 3 in 2 days.
  Birds seem to be stupid by region.
- A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month
  The same bird???
- That's less them being stupid and more their eyes are on the side of their head so they can't see directly in front of them.
Not true at all. There's tons of adaptive pressure. If there weren't, we wouldn't see the thousands of pelagic and shorebird species that we do. But even if what you say about the threat from predation were true --its not-- there would still be adaptive pressure from differential reproduction rates and access to nutrients.
- Which is why you see ducks with all their spec points into r---ing and not getting r--ed. Yes they're adapting but not to the environment.

I’m sure there’s some seagull out there with a 1000-yard stare who went through the most fucked up shit of his life in the 90’s and still remembers it like it was yesterday. He hangs out down by the bars and drinks discarded alcohol out of the trash, trying to forget, and then flies around drunk bumping into things.

The other seagulls look at him and shake their heads with pity “he used to be such a good gull.. so full of promise.”

Too soon, too soon, too soon.
He stole food from Madonna too soon.
Too young, too young, too soon too soon.

This reminds me of a talk I had with my dad, an equine veterinarian for 40 years. I'd seen that video of a horse eating a chick online and someone in the comments explained that horses are naturally opportunistic eaters and that's why it took the chance to munch it down. I confidently told him this later on and he said, 'nah, they're just stupid'.

If you throw a blanket over a horses head, it will think it's dead and starve to death if you don't remove the blanket
- Are they stupid or do they know that death is just a dark void?
- Someone on youtube said it therefore it must be true. I believe it.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  throw a blanket over a horses head, it will think it's dead
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

I don't know that I'd trust an ornathologist to know how the brain chemistry works. But I do trust that they're dumb. Lacking memory isn't predictive of being dumb, but there's probably some correlation. Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.

Ornithologists do actual science, they aren't just bird watchers. An ornithologist is pretty much the only one I would trust about this because they are the ones studying the birds.
- That and the bird lawyers.
Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.
My spirit animal

Wait till this person hears about parrots

For real, there are at least some parrots that are likely to outlive their owners. Like if you get a pet parrot you do it considering you will likely pass it on to someone else in your fucking will.
- The sadder part of this is that many "pet" parrots live much shorter than their natural life in the wild because their owners don't know how to care for them. They're also extremely intelligent, some researchers argue that macaws can be considered sapient for example.
  Even more widespread problem with koi and goldfish. They can live well into their 80s and can grow up to many pounds over that time, yet most people have their goldfish die after two weeks and just assume that's their natural lifespan because they're irresponsible owners. Hint: that glass bowl is not cutting it, there isn't a single species of fish that can be healthy in a tank without an active circulation pump and filter. Also fun fact: the Western misconception that goldfish can be kept in bowls comes from the fact that in China and Japan where they originate, owners would sometimes put them in clay bowls to show them off (which were about a meter in diameter BTW, not the soccer ball sized bowls you see nowadays), they were kept in those bowls very rarely, they were traditionally raised in large ponds.
- My great grandad got a couple of cockatoos when he was in his 20s right after ww2 and they still managed to outlive him. Only by a few weeks mind you - poor things starved themselves to death out of grief after he died. He told us not to worry about rehoming them because he knew they wouldn't be able to take the loss of loosing him at such an age.
  He only had them because he took up conservation work and they're just, native to Australia. They lived out in a big aviary he'd built with trees and bushes and even a water feature along with other birds he ended up aquiring. I adored those birds, but I genuinely can't understand how or why you'd keep such a big beautiful intelligent bird as a pet in a cage on the other side of the world and it always weirds me out when I see these birds I grew up watching roam free eating all our damn lemons in someone's house as a pet. It's like if you an American saw someone keeping a racoon as a pet.
Or crows, they reach roughly the same age and ravens can turn fucking 80 in captivity, not sure how long they live in the wild tho!

They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They're probably smarter than most people.

Based on the 2020 US election, we know at least 74,222,958 people that fall under the seagull intelligence standard.
- Not a single seagull voted for Trump. Not one. How do libs explain this, other than by voter suppression?
Not a especially high bar!

They have enough thought process to play. Watch them fly. They play in the thermals. Do all manner of aerobatics. They know how to steal from humans. That's not "dumb".

I think a lot of birds have more complex internal lives than people realize. I have chickens, amd all four of them have a distinct personality and feelings.
- No kidding. My yard has had more chickens than I can count over the years. Every one an individual.
There's literally a Sea Chanty from the 1600s about this. "Three White Gulls Were Flying"
It was a Crow's Nest Chanty. Not a rowing or pull and haul Chanty.
- Do tell!
- Idk if that's like a weird spelling from another country, but I've always read it as Shanty.

"The greatest trick the devil ever played was making man believe he doesn't exist"

Those seagulls remember... and they'll have their revenge for that hot dog bun you scared them off in 04'. tick tok

Since there is videos of seagulls hunting pigeons i'd say they are pretty smart birds. They just dont give a fuck to pretend around people.

Just because an animal is territorial and good at killing does not mean it's smart.
- Yes but we already know about cops.
- The approach is pretty smart though and it isnt standard seagull behaviour, so they are inventive. Also they are about the same size as pigeons.
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPTBhmcyXY
- This entire argument is a joke. They are birds, not even mammals, what can apes know about bird-logic? Einstein said you cant judge a fish for how well it can climb a tree but our bias for human smarts remains. Judge a seagull in the context of a seagull and the result will be the same as for every single other species, some are smarter/dumber then others, all have their own strengths and weaknesses. A smart seagull is the one most consistently successful and healthy as a seagull.
They're probably just "dumb" in comparison to corvids and parrots and the like.

I don’t remember the 90s either.

Then wanted your French fries in the 90’s and they still want them today