# Okay, but does easy living make birds dumber?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/okay-but-birds-7584311/okay-but-does-easy-living-make-birds-dumber
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/okay-but-birds-7584311/okay-but-does-easy-living-make-birds-dumber.md
Podcast: [Okay, But... Birds](https://stenobird.com/podcast/okay-but-birds-7584311)
Published: 2026-06-25T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://okaybutbirds.com
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/020b25e8-97c6-43a9-8f4c-5e900b492551.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/okay-but-birds-7584311/episodes/okay-but-does-easy-living-make-birds-dumber
Duration seconds: 1954

## Resource

E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero , Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tracing what variable, unforgiving environments actually do to bird cognition, and the answer flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head. In this episode: Why the harshest places on Earth produce two kinds of birds: the puzzle-solving geniuses and the brute-force survivors, with almost nothing in between How big brains might not have evolved for the reasons we always assumed Why being one of the smartest birds in the sky can come with a hidden cost All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Willow Ptarmigan audio contributed by Leonard J. Peyton, ML50031 American Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229089 Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749 Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239 Snowy Owl audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML138288

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## Transcript

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