What Happens When You Show Kea A Mirror?

This week we have something I have been wanting to try out for a very long time. I bought in a mirror and put it in front of the kea just to see what their first reaction would be. This could be extended into a proper mirror mark test to see if they are able to recognize themselves at all, but that is beyond what we currently have time or approval to do, so may have to wait for someone else to try in the future!

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[Loscha]

My expectations were met.
Kea sees mirror.
Wonders if there's another bird on other side for about 15 seconds, then, attempts to destroy mirror.

[dnolan]

We have a peacock who reacts for hours with his reflection appearing almost to be self admiring. He doesn't try to find a bird behind the mirror. He does the same with windows if the room is dark inside. So much so we have erected a large mirror in his sheltered perch. The female peahen is much less interested I her reflection.

[CelebrianUndomiel]

“Yep, I look cool. Now back to destruction.”

[GiantPetRat]

We've placed our Blue-Fronted Amazon in front of the bathroom mirror, and unlike when I play him recordings of wild BFAs, he is mostly unaffected. The cockatiel, on the other hand, definitely thinks that his reflection is another bird, and starts to whistle in that nervous way they do, almost like he's trying to placate the stranger by saying "Hey, it's cool, bro, I come in peace".

[edwardpaddock]

Kea Vanity Rating: 1/10
Kea Destructive ability: 8/10
Kea Cuteness: 11/10

[lizpollock]

Kia Ora! The single bird showed the mirror reacted exactly the same way my American Cocker Spaniel did when she was a puppy. She failed to recognize the image as herself - and looked behind the mirror for the other cocker spaniel she had seen. She still does it sometimes if there is an animal on the TV, she looks behind the TV and sometimes in the room behind the TV (door is next to the TV) for the animal she has seen on screen. Obviously a difference in looking at a TV and looking at a mirror. But she definitely recognizes images as animal like - they are the only ones she barks at. Meerkats in particular deserve to be barked at.

[bisdak]

Change the color of the mirror's frame ( not black or yellow which you used these colors on the reward tokens). If you observed the birds were biting the frame because they probably thought it as a reward token. The birds attention was instinctly directed to the black frame- thus jeopardizing the deliverables of the experiment.

[DonnaFernstrom]

For a proper test, it's necessary to give the animals a chance to learn how mirrors work. So you'd want to get a mirror that they cannot destroy, and affix it permanently in part of their enclosure. Once they have had a chance to thoroughly explore the mirror, then a mirror-mark test can be done. Most animals, including humans, react to a mirror the first time they see it as if they are looking at another individual. They try to touch them, talk to them, and will often look behind the mirror to try to get another view of the 'other animal.' The self-aware ones figure out what's going on later as they continue to interact with it.

[rickh]

Once they physically determined it was a flat packed mirror they immediately saw it as I-Kea & saw no further cause for self reflection.

[auskiwi]

When Taz looked behind the mirror, do you think he was 'looking' for another bird, or just looking for a part of the mirror frame that he could get his beak into and destroy? lol

[joergnitschke]

If possible (and your Keas let you), maybe you could modify the experiment similar to the paper of Helmut Prior and Onur Güntürkün, putting some kind of coloured mark somewhere where they can only spot it in the mirror (like below the beak or on the forehead) and then observe what they do when they spot the coloured spot on themselves in the mirror

[k.jespersen]

X) The idea of catching kea and marking them is inherently a little funny. Do you think they'd give alarm calls against the perpetrator?

Best wishes on getting approval for the marking test! This video was pretty cool.

[twelthman]

When i was young, the old folk in the town where i lived would hire a bus from Midland Motorways and my father as driver for a week-long trip to some part of the South Island. Always looked forward to going over Arthurs' Pass (between Canterbury and the West coast) because, sure The cheeky devils would walk/hop right up to you, and once, when i was distracted, unraveled my shoe laces which ended up with me flat on my face.The scene was always enlivened by dad's "Don't let the buggers onto the bus"!. He had had quite a few experiences with keas when he was a lad, rabbit shooting in the high country, but they always fascinated me with their cheek and obvious intelligence.

[dubaspace]

I’m not by any means particularly a bird or even animal lover. When I discovered the keas a couple week ago for the first time in Christchurch and again now in queenstown, im obsessed. I was playing with them for like 30 minutes showing them a lighter and putting it back in my buttoned pocket…they were opening the buttons….they don’t look at you like a stupid bird….comparing them like to other stupid birds is almost like comparing a dolphin to a fish

[PaulG.x]

Kea sees mirror.
Kea reaction: "Oh, a mirror, I'm gorgeous . Where's the food?"

[LFTRnow]

Mr Kea sir! We have found this strange portal to another world! Excellent, let's move it to another location and see if the location on the other side changes! Sir! All attempts to relocate the portal have resisted our efforts!

[k.jespersen]

That's... about the same as my Senegal's reaction when I hold him up to a mirror. Looks for a moment. Maybe tongues at the image. Tries to see the other side. Decides either to chew the mirror or to give me an "are you silly?" look.

Did you see any sort of difference in reactions between younger birds and mature birds? It was a short clip, but I thought yellow-eyed birds looked more likely to approach with an open beak, and mature birds with a closed beak.

An alternative experiment that might be interesting is what the kea do when they see a human they know duplicated in the reflection (maybe holding a colored token). My Senegal has gotten used to seeing me both in and out of a mirror at the same time, but when he first saw that, it really threw him for a loop. He wasn't sure how I was bilocating or which version of me he was supposed to approach.

[mokko]

Two years to late to the party but here's my experience:
I have a little Indian Ringneck. When she sees a mirror, she'll toddle over, tap the glass a few times, inspect it for about 30 seconds and then basically ignore it. I don't think she recognizes that it's a reflection of herself but she most certainly realizes that it is not another bird. My mum's cockatoos are the same, they don't care at all about mirrors, they know they aren't other birds.

[aroha]

Honestly, I think they were like 'oh, there's my reflection. Well... that was fun for a second - I'm gonna go play with something more interesting!'

[wiegraf]

Reminds me of my chewing stim impulse as a neurodivergent person with ADHD. Just gotta use that beak!