Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: PC090228

Quite a dainty picture of the popular little Black-capped Chickadee. Scientists at Lehigh University have found that "seasonal neuronal growth in adult chickadees results in a 30% increase in brain size each fall! The researchers hypothesize that the chickadee's brain swell may be related to the storing of complex spatial information. Each chickadee caches seeds in small pockets over a wide area, and these seed reserves provide the bird's nourishment throughout the winter. Perhaps what is more surprising is that the bird's brain shrinks again in the spring." Wish my brain had that capability, too, then I'd only lose things in the summer time!