This Michigan Bird Grows Its Brain To Survive The Winter
Many animals shed skin or grow feathers in order to deal with and survive through the frigid winters.
However, this particular bird does something even more peculiar to survive.
The Black-capped chickadee grows brain tissue to survive the harsh winters.
According to Friends of The Fox River,
"they frequent shrubby backyards, degraded industrial parks, as well as wooded natural areas. They are a bird that everyone should be able to identify by their distinctive black cap and throat with white cheeks. Males and females are identical and they don't change plumage seasonally."
Native to the state of Michigan, the palm-sized bird actually has a pretty good memory...but only during the winter months.
The chickadee will live off of seeds and other foods that they stored in the ground and they memorize where they bury them.
Sadly, they can only remember this during the winter when their hippocampus gets bigger.
You might be wondering how much bigger the bird's brain gets.
Through the research of these particular birds, some of the chickadees have been shown to have their brains grow by nearly a third!
That is insane since they have such tiny bodies!
According to Fox 2 Detroit,
"The super-charged memory is the species' life-or-death adaption since it sticks around in the winter. But even a storage bank this impressive has its limitations. Scientists have determined the long-term memory only goes back 28 days."
Besides Michigan, you can also spot these chickadees in parts of the northern United States and the southern parts of Canada. However, they can get as far south as North Carolina and Kansas. They have also been spotted in Alaska as well.