Magpie has passed the mirror self-recognition test

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Yes, based on a growing body of scientific evidence and a broad consensus among neuroscientists, birds are considered to possess subjective experiences (consciousness) and individual uniqueness. 

Subjective Experience

• Scientific Consensus: In 2012, the "Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness" unequivocally asserted that birds possess the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. This was reinforced by the 2024 "New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness," signed by hundreds of academics, which stated there is strong scientific support for conscious experiences in birds.
• Neural Correlates: While birds lack a mammalian-style cerebral cortex, they have an analogous brain structure called the pallium, specifically the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL), which serves similar high-level cognitive functions as the primate prefrontal cortex. Studies have found neuronal activity in the NCL that correlates with a bird's own internal perceptual state rather than just the external stimulus, which is considered an empirical marker of sensory consciousness.
• Behavioral Evidence: Birds, particularly corvids (crows, ravens, magpies, jays) and parrots, exhibit complex cognitive abilities that suggest subjective internal states. These include problem-solving, episodic-like memory (remembering "what, where, and when" of past events), future planning, and empathy. 

Individual Uniqueness

• Individual Recognition: Birds demonstrate the ability to differentiate between other individual birds and even their human companions based on individual features like calls, appearance, and smell. This ability for individual recognition implies they perceive others as unique entities.
• Personality and Emotional Variation: Individual birds within a species can have distinct personalities and emotional responses, which researchers have linked to factors like hormone levels and ecological pressures. For example, studies show individual preferences in social interactions, such as which specific partner a parrot prefers to collaborate with on a task.
• Self-Awareness: Some species, notably the European magpie, have passed the mirror self-recognition test, suggesting a level of self-awareness previously thought to be exclusive to great apes, dolphins, and elephants. 

In essence, current evidence strongly supports that birds have a unique, first-person perspective on their world, integrating sensory information and internal states to guide their actions and social interactions in a way that is specific to each individual. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Does+a+bird+possess+subjective+uniqueness

The Psychic Being: Soul — Its Nature, Mission and Evolution

—Selections from the Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (Compiled by A. S. Dalal)

The selections in this compilation deal with the meaning and nature of the psychic being, its role and action in the awakening to the inner life, and its influence on the afterlife and the process of rebirth. Many of the extracts clarify the difference between the soul in its purely essential form and the psychic being, which is the soul in its evolutionary, individualised form. The process of psychic growth and development and the central role of the psychic being in the individual's sadhana are some of the key concepts in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and are given prominence in this compilation, which is aimed mainly at the general reader.

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