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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.

Cities have a lot to offer: theater, music, restaurants, birds. Yes, birds. But city birds are not like other birds. Because big cities are inhabited by birds with big brains. That's according to a study in the journal Biology Letters.

It can take smarts to survive in the big city. Especially for birds. The urban environment is very different from the one in which their ancestors were born and fledged. But do city birds really need more gray matter to make it?

Scientists surveyed 82 species of passerine birds, including sparrows, pigeons and anything that perches¹, in and around 12 cities in central Europe. They classified the birds as those that breed in the heart of the city or those that avoid the hustle² and bustle³. And then they compared the bird brains.

The results? Birds that prosper⁴ on the city streets have larger brains than their pastoral relations. So it seems that novel environments, including urban landscapes, may select for street smarts—at least for birds that flock toward the city lights.

Urban areas continue to spread. So to survive, our feathered friends may need to expand their minds as they spread their wings.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkin.