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Yes—some tested birds can give up an immediate, less-preferred food for a better reward later. Eurasian jays, great green macaws, blue-throated macaws, blue-headed macaws and African grey parrots have all shown this ability under particular laboratory conditions. That is evidence of flexible self-control in those animals, not proof that every bird takes a single, standardized “marshmallow test” or thinks exactly like a child.
The useful question is therefore not whether birds “pass” or “fail” as a group. It is what each experiment asked the bird to wait for, how the delay worked, which species were tested and whether the result involved food quality, quantity, training or another task feature.
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What the bird version of the marshmallow test measures
The human marshmallow test is a convenient analogy for a broader class of delay-of-gratification experiments. A subject faces an immediate reward that is smaller or less desirable and a delayed reward that is better. Choosing the delayed option requires resisting the immediate payoff.
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteBird studies use that logic, but they do not all measure the same ability. A bird may have to continue waiting while a preferred food remains unavailable, wait while a reward accumulates, or exchange an item it already possesses for a better one. Those designs can produce different results because they place different demands on attention, motivation, learning and impulse control.
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| Task format | What the bird does | What it can reveal |
|---|---|---|
| Delayed maintenance | Chooses the preferred option and sustains a wait before receiving it | Both the initial choice and the ability to maintain the delay |
| Accumulation | Waits while additional food is added to a reward | Whether the expected increase is worth postponing consumption |
| Exchange | Holds or gives up an item to obtain a more preferred reward later | Control over an immediately available object and sensitivity to trade-offs |
A result from one format should not be treated as a direct score on another. The 2019 comparative review of corvids, parrots and nonhuman primates explains why task design is central when scientists compare self-control across species: the reward, delay, training history and response required can all change the difficulty (WIREs Cognitive Science review, 2019).
Eurasian jays: choosing and sustaining a delayed reward
What the 2022 study tested
A Royal Society study tested 10 Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) in a delayed-maintenance task. The birds were assessed on two linked parts of the challenge: whether they selected the preferred outcome and whether they could continue waiting before receiving it. That distinction matters. A bird can understand which reward is better yet still abandon the choice during the delay.
The study reported that the jays’ self-control performance was correlated with performance on other cognitive tests. “Correlated” means the measures varied together in this sample; it does not show that waiting caused higher intelligence, that intelligence caused waiting, or that one test gives a complete measure of cognition. The authors’ findings support an association between self-control and other capacities under the conditions they examined, not a universal ranking of birds.
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You can read the full paper, including its methods and statistical analyses, in “Waiting for a better possibility: delay of gratification in corvids and its relationship to other cognitive capacities” (Royal Society, 2022).
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What a jay’s performance does—and does not—tell us
- It shows that the tested jays could defer consumption for a more preferred outcome in that experimental arrangement.
- It indicates that maintaining a delay is separable from merely identifying the better food.
- It does not establish human-equivalent planning, language, understanding of time or general intelligence.
- It cannot be generalized automatically to every jay, every corvid or every pet bird.
Parrots that waited for the better option
Four species in one delay-of-gratification study
A separate study examined four parrot species: great green macaws, blue-throated macaws, blue-headed macaws and African grey parrots. All four tested species were able to wait for a better reward in the study’s delay-of-gratification paradigm. The result is important because it demonstrates the behavior in several parrots rather than in a single especially unusual individual.
The finding still needs to be read within the experiment’s boundaries. The birds completed a particular task with particular rewards, delays and prior experience. “All four species waited” is not the same as saying every member of each species would wait in every situation, nor does it provide a directly comparable score against children or the Eurasian jays.
Why the authors were cautious about ecology
The parrot paper discusses whether feeding patterns and socio-ecological complexity might help shape self-control. Those ideas are plausible evolutionary hypotheses, not settled explanations. The authors explicitly call for more systematic comparisons before ecological differences can be tested rigorously. Their article is available through “Intra- and interspecific variation in self-control capacities of parrots in a delay of gratification task” (online 2021; issue 2022).
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Birds may wait for better food, not merely more food
One corvid study shows why “patience” is too simple a description. In experiments reported in 2014, corvids waited when the delayed food was higher in quality, but they did not wait simply because the later payoff contained a larger quantity. A more desirable kind of food changed the decision; a bigger amount of an otherwise less-preferred food did not produce the same response.
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This pattern suggests that birds evaluate what they are waiting for rather than applying a fixed rule such as “always wait for more.” It also illustrates why two delay tasks cannot be compared by delay length alone. The value of the food, the contrast between immediate and delayed options and the way the reward is presented all influence the choice. The study, “Waiting for better, not for more: corvids respond to quality in two delay maintenance tasks,” is published by Animal Behaviour (2014).
How scientists compare results across bird studies
A responsible comparison starts by matching the features that determine difficulty. The following questions should be answered before treating two species’ results as a contest.
| Comparison point | Why it matters | What is established here |
|---|---|---|
| Species and sample | Different species and small samples may vary in motivation and experience | 10 Eurasian jays in the 2022 Royal Society study; four parrot species in the parrot study, with the summarized material not stating a combined sample size |
| Immediate versus delayed reward | The value gap determines how worthwhile waiting is | Some tasks contrasted a less-preferred immediate food with a preferred delayed food |
| Quality versus quantity | Birds may value a tastier item differently from a larger portion | Corvids waited for higher quality, not merely greater quantity, in the 2014 study |
| Task format | Maintenance, accumulation and exchange impose different demands | These formats are distinct and should not be collapsed into one score |
| Delay and training | Longer waits and different training histories can change performance | Exact delay lengths and training conditions vary by study; a single cross-study delay is not established in the summarized findings |
The 2019 review uses this kind of methodological framing to evaluate evidence from corvids, parrots and nonhuman primates. It presents comparative self-control as an active scientific question, not as a settled league table of animal intelligence.
Does waiting prove that a bird is planning ahead?
Waiting for a later reward demonstrates delayed gratification in an experimental task. It does not, by itself, identify the mental process responsible. A bird might use learned associations, assess the relative value of foods, monitor the passage of a delay, control an impulse or combine several of these abilities.
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Planning is a stronger interpretation than the behavioral result alone supports. To claim planning or human-like understanding of the future, scientists would need evidence that distinguishes those possibilities from simpler explanations. The jay study’s relationship between self-control and cognitive-test performance is also associative rather than causal.
Likewise, the phrase “self-control” should be kept specific. In these papers it refers to performance in defined choice-and-delay situations. It should not be expanded into a claim that a species has superior judgment in every setting, can understand human rules or will reliably resist any temptation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why species and individuals can differ
Reward preferences
A delay is worthwhile only if the later item is valuable enough. The corvid quality-versus-quantity result shows that a larger portion may not compensate for lower desirability. Individual birds can also have different food preferences, making a nominally identical trial more or less motivating.
Ecology and social life
Parrots’ feeding patterns and social complexity have been proposed as factors that might influence self-control. That proposal remains to be tested with broader, systematically collected comparisons. It should not be presented as an established reason one species waits longer than another.
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Learning and experimental history
Training can teach a bird how the apparatus works, what signals a delay and which responses produce food. Consequently, a result reflects both the bird’s capacities and its experience with the task. Comparing an experienced subject with an untrained one as though they had received the same challenge can be misleading.
Can you repeat the test with a pet bird?
The published experiments were controlled studies, not a validated home enrichment or training protocol. They used defined rewards, timing, preference assessments and safeguards that are difficult to reproduce reliably in a household.
Do not deliberately withhold food, extend a bird’s wait to the point of distress or treat a failed trial as a diagnosis of intelligence. A pet bird’s refusal may reflect hunger, stress, unfamiliar equipment, an unsuitable reward or a health problem rather than a lack of self-control. If you want to provide enrichment, use activities recommended by an avian veterinarian or qualified behavior professional, and keep normal feeding and welfare needs separate from any informal game.
What “birds pass the test” really means
The strongest defensible conclusion is narrow but significant: the Eurasian jays and parrots tested in these studies could sometimes postpone an immediate reward to obtain a preferred one. Their choices changed with reward value, and in the jays, self-control performance was associated with other cognitive-test performance.
That evidence supports flexible self-control in particular birds under particular conditions. It does not create one bird version of the human marshmallow test, establish an across-species ranking or show that birds share children’s understanding of delay and future rewards. The most informative comparisons therefore report the species, sample, task format, reward difference, delay and training history together—not just whether a bird supposedly “passed.”
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