The 90s are nothing. I remember a flock of seagulls from the 80s that are still flying around.

Any bird who lives primarily in the water is dumb as shit. They have unlimited protection above and around them, so they have zero adaptive pressure to put anything into their intelligence. Land birds have a lot to worry about so their brains are approaching human levels of intellect.

I’m sure there’s some seagull out there with a 1000-yard stare who went through the most fucked up shit of his life in the 90’s and still remembers it like it was yesterday. He hangs out down by the bars and drinks discarded alcohol out of the trash, trying to forget, and then flies around drunk bumping into things.

The other seagulls look at him and shake their heads with pity “he used to be such a good gull.. so full of promise.”

This reminds me of a talk I had with my dad, an equine veterinarian for 40 years. I'd seen that video of a horse eating a chick online and someone in the comments explained that horses are naturally opportunistic eaters and that's why it took the chance to munch it down. I confidently told him this later on and he said, 'nah, they're just stupid'.

I don't know that I'd trust an ornathologist to know how the brain chemistry works. But I do trust that they're dumb. Lacking memory isn't predictive of being dumb, but there's probably some correlation. Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.

Wait till this person hears about parrots

They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They're probably smarter than most people.

They have enough thought process to play. Watch them fly. They play in the thermals. Do all manner of aerobatics. They know how to steal from humans. That's not "dumb".

"The greatest trick the devil ever played was making man believe he doesn't exist"

Those seagulls remember... and they'll have their revenge for that hot dog bun you scared them off in 04'. tick tok

Since there is videos of seagulls hunting pigeons i'd say they are pretty smart birds. They just dont give a fuck to pretend around people.

I don’t remember the 90s either.