Crows make decisions twice as fast as humans, study finds

A recent scientific study has revealed that crows can make decisions at remarkable speed with researchers finding that the birds process visual information and respond in a fraction of a second.

A recent scientific study has revealed that crows can make decisions at remarkable speed with researchers finding that the birds process visual information and respond in a fraction of a second.

According to international media reports scientists have increasingly recognised the intelligence of crows in recent years. Research has shown that these birds can make and store objects maintain tools and even engage in playful activities.

A study published in the journal Science has now found that crows can make certain decisions almost twice as quickly as humans and monkeys.

Researchers at Germany’s University of Tübingen conducted experiments to examine how quickly the birds could interpret visual information. Their findings showed that crows took approximately 235 milliseconds to make a decision based on what they saw.

During the experiment, the birds were shown moving dots on a touchscreen and had to identify whether the pattern indicated movement towards the left or right. They then selected their answer by pecking the corresponding side of the screen.

The researchers described the birds’ performance as impressive particularly when the direction of movement was difficult to distinguish. Even in challenging trials the crows frequently identified the correct direction.

The findings suggest that the birds can examine visual details and respond to them in less than a second. Researchers were particularly interested to discover that crows appeared to use decision-making processes similar to those observed in humans and other mammals, despite having a substantially different brain structure.

However, scientists have yet to identify the precise biological mechanisms responsible for this ability.

The latest findings build on earlier research from the same university. A study published in May 2024 found that crows could count aloud from one to four. The birds were also able to recognise numbers displayed on a screen and produce the corresponding number of calls.

Together, these findings offer further insight into the cognitive abilities of crows and the sophisticated ways in which their brains process information.