Bird boogies for science

Written byElie Dolgin

| 1 min read

Everybody, yeah.
Rock your body, yeah.
Everybody, yeah.
Rock your body right.
Snowball's back, alright. linkurl:Snowball,;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7IZmRnAo6s the dancing cockatoo of YouTube fame, made an encore performance last Saturday (June 13) at the linkurl:World Science Festival;http://www.worldsciencefestival.com as part of__ linkurl:Avian Einsteins,;http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2009/avian-einsteins __a panel discussion on the parallels between bird and human brains. Joined by several of the world's leading bird biologists -- including Duke University's linkurl:Erich Jarvis,;http://www.jarvislab.net University of Cambridge's linkurl:Nicola Clayton,;http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/pages/staffweb/clayton Brandeis University's linkurl:Irene Pepperberg,;http://www.brandeis.edu/facguide/person.html?emplid=2d3923e829d95e3849ac8001f5c5fa254b5cf400 and City College New York's linkurl:Ofer Tchernichovski;http://ofer.sci.ccny.cuny.edu -- Snowball boogied to his favorite song, __Everybody__ by the linkurl:Backstreet Boys.;http://blog.backstreetboys.com/ Last month, researchers at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, Calif., manipulated the tune's tempo and linkurl:showed;http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)00890-2] that the sulphur-crested cockatoo could adjust its dancing rhythm to different beats; the first known non-human to exhibit that skill. You can watch Snowball and all the panelists shaking their tail feathers at New York University's Skirball Center here:

**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Watching wisdom;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55761/
[12th June 2009]*linkurl:PhDs (People Having Dance-offs);http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55214/
[21st November 2008]*linkurl:Individuality, evolution, and dancing;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/65/
[13th June 2005]