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B irds have fascinated naturalists and amateur bird-watchers alike for thousands of years with their remarkable abilities and behaviors (Konishi et al. 1989). These include migrating thousands of kilometers using only the earth's magnetic fi eld as their compass (Wiltschko and Wiltschko 2010); memorizing and performing complex songs after limited exposure (Hultsch and Todd 2008); and " caching " and, after many months, retrieving food from hundreds of different locations (Raby and Clayton 2010). Despite these impressive abilities, the popular impression is that birds are cognitively limited—the expression " bird-brain " has long been part of the colloquial vernacular to denote a lack of intellectual ability. Even a recent popular science book (Weiner 1999) translated the name of the fruit fl y learning mutant linotte (after the French expression tête de linotte) as " birdbrain. " Bird Brains Are Not " Birdbrains " The notion of limited avian cognition was based on false understanding of brain evolution popularized at the turn of the last century, when much of brain nomenclature was fi rst assigned. In recent years, detailed anatomical and molecular studies have shown that avian brains are in fact quite similar in their organization to mammalian brains (Jarvis et al. 2005), and in 2004 the names of many structures in the avian brain were renamed to refl ect these similarities (Reiner et al. 2004). This revised view is also consistent with many of the higher cognitive abilities observed in birds (Emery and Clayton 2005), such as the tool-making skills in New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) (Taylor et al. 2007) and the abstract communication skills exemplifi ed by Alex the African grey parrot 1 (Pepperberg 2002). In this issue a diverse a group of authors showcase some of the current exciting research on birds. Most of the work described involves the use of birds as model systems in the laboratory to study brain function and its impact on behavior , and many of the scientifi c fi ndings have had a signifi cant impact in the neurosciences. Such fi ndings include the demonstration of neurogenesis in adult brains (Nottebohm 2008), the discovery that hormones can cause profound changes in behavior by their direct effects on brain anatomy and function (Arnold and Gorski 1984; Ball and Balthazart 2004) and that brain maps of auditory space are computed constructs that can be shaped by experience (Knudsen 2002). In the following sections I …

Contributions of Bird Studies to Behavioral and Neurobiological Research