Well, traditionally we use the term ‘bird brain’ as an insult, but research into the behaviour and communication skills of some birds indicates that it might be more accurate if the phrase were used as a compliment.

Many Australian birds – especially parrots and ravens – have developed the art of tool usage very well.

The black breasted buzzard, for example, uses a stone to crack open an emu egg, the palm cockatoo uses a stick - which it has shaped for that purpose - to get grubs out from under bark, and the currawong has worked out how to open a zip to get inside a rucksack and pinch the food which has often been stored inside.

Some birds seem to have developed language to a far greater extent than most of us believe.

If birds are clever in many unexpected ways, what other creatures can communicate even better?

Dolphins spring immediately to mind – their transmission of clicks and the way their brains interpret the returning echoes also indicates the development of a language.

A Russian guide on a trip I took recently (she was doing her PhD in dolphin and whale language ) explained that a dolphin which ‘pings’ onto a female dolphin can tell from the returning echo whether the target female is pregnant.

Do we really know enough about the creatures which share this planet with us?

Could we learn more from them if we tried?

I believe that the answer must be a very positive one.

ABC has recently featured a number of programs on space research with particular emphasis on the possibility of life on another planet.

When you consider the astronomical cost (forgive the pun) of such research, and the likely usefulness of the findings, could we be forgiven for thinking that for far less cost we might get far more value from researching the behaviour and communication skills of some of the creatures closer to us.

Much research has of course already been undertaken, with fascinating results.

Jane Goodall, for example, looked into gorillas and chimpanzees, Tim Low wrote a book on birds Where Song Began, and Peter Meredith in his article Feathered Geniuses in the most recent edition of Australian Geographic.

August 23 was National Threatened Species day and one good reason for preventing the extinction of any more species is the possibility of learning valuable information from them.

Remember in future to use the expression ‘bird brain’ as a compliment, but do tell your friend why you are using the phrase as a compliment or they might react in the wrong way.