Crow way! Are these birds 'smarter' than toddlers?

Scientists have discovered crows have counting skills that have only been seen before in humans.

Researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany found that crows can make a number of sounds on command, similar to the way toddlers count.

In order to do this, scientists said the birds would need to have a "sophisticated" set of vocal and number skills.

It is hoped these smart birds could help humans learn more about how we ourselves understand numbers.

The crows' counting skills were certainly put to the test

How did the crow counting experiment work?

Researchers worked with three crows that could already make the "caw" sound on command.

The birds were shown numbers between 1 and 4 on a screen and taught the right number of calls for each one.

As the trial progressed they were also taught four different sounds which matched each of the numbers. These were a guitar chord, cash register 'cha-ching', drum roll and an upward sweeping noise.

The crows would peck at a key on the screen when they had given their answer. If they got the correct answer they would be rewarded with mealworms and bird pellets through a feeder. If they got it wrong they got a time out from the trial.

Despite some mistakes, the birds were far from 'winging it', as they were right most of the time.

After a certain number of training sessions all crows were able to make the correct number of noises for the cues "at a higher level than chance", so researchers think they knew what they were doing.

Giving the term 'bird-brain' a whole new meaning!