L Haywood Coffey: Pigeons are trained as fussy art critics in bizarre study

Pigeons are trained as fussy art critics in bizarre study

I've always hated critics of any kind. This proves I'm right:

It may explain why they flock to Trafalgar Square. They're there to visit the National Gallery.

Pigeons, it seems, can discriminate between art techniques and can even judge their quality.

According to scientists, given the incentive of food, racing pigeons can be trained to study the colour, pattern and texture of paintings and evaluate them like an art critic.

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Coo, that's lovely: Pigeons were trained to peck at 'good' children's pictures where specific shapes could be seen

Their experiment was divided into two halves: the first saw four pigeons placed in a chamber with a computer monitor displaying watercolour and pastel paintings by schoolchildren.

The paintings were divided into 'good' and 'bad' categories by 11 adults, including an art teacher, depending on whether the images were clear and precise.

The pigeons were shown some of the paintings from each category and rewarded with food when they pecked at the good pictures, but not the bad ones.

They were then presented with a mixture of new and old paintings from both categories and the researchers noted the birds consistently pecked at the 'good' paintings more often.