Feather brained

My pigeons, well, not mine really, but just seeming to have made this their (we hope) temporary home, set me thinking on how insulting some of our expressions are to birds. For instance the definition of feather-brained as being - lacking seriousness; given to frivolity; silly, not serious in content, attitude or behaviour. And of bird-brain as being stupid.


Yet watching the behaviour of birds, they do have brains and they do use them sensibly.
Ok, maybe these 2 pigeons didn`t use theirs sensibily enough to fly home yet, but they certainly know how and where to come and get food. Having given them some seeds this afternoon, I put the bag of sunflower seeds on a stool in the summerhouse where I was sitting, and it wasn`t many minutes before one of the pigeons spotted them there, so he (or she) trotted up to the entrance, round the door and jumped up onto floor of the summerhouse and then proceeded to jump up onto the stool to peck at the bag of seeds!