Big brains are costly in terms of development and maintenance. But they’re thought to enhance a bird’s survival by allowing it to rapidly adjust to unusual, novel, or complex ecological challenges such as finding new food or avoiding unfamiliar predators. It’s called the cognitive buffer hypothesis. A big brain “buffers” an animal from environmental change by allowing it to adapt to novel resources—to try new foods and explore new objects and situations that a more “programmed” species might avoid.
