I’ve done it with my birds. 2 out of 3 lovebirds passed the test, 1 of 3 cockatiels, and both conures, by which I mean they saw the speck on themselves and attempted to get it off. The others were either clueless or didn’t care, who can say?
I also have a green checked conure that a couple times tried to jam a couple shed feathers onto her head, apparently to imitate the head crest of the cockatiels. Make of that what you will. The cockatiels weren’t impressed.
Here’s a BBC article from last year:
Magpie ‘can recognise reflection’
They say it’s the first time this trait has been found in a non-mammal.
Cockatiels are not supposed to be able to - keeping a mirror in their cages is advised against, because they’ll attempt to bond with the reflection and get sulky when it doesn’t respond. One of ours appears to recognize himself, though.
First time officially found - there’s been a lot of anecdotal “evidence” over the years, which is not proof but often inspires research.
As far as whether or not cockatiels are “supposed” to recognize themselves - it may be unusual, but members of a particular species do vary in intelligence.
The spot test works well with chimpanzees and other social animals. Facial cues are so important in their interactions that they are very self-conscious about dirt and markings on their face. Intelligent but solitary animals–orangutans I think were the example–can recognize their reflection in the mirror but won’t react to the spot. The thought process is assumed to be something like, “Oh, there’s a thing on my face. Meh.”
With cats, I don’t think the spot test will tell you anything. I don’t know how social cats are, but I suspect they rely far more on sounds and scent for communication. I really don’t know, though.
My cat is about 14 and very expressive and vocal. We have a bird feeder on the tree outside our sliding glass door. She watches the birds intently but only vocalizes if there are bluejays or crows at the feeder. She has a special sort of gurgle/growl for them that I can hear in another room and know that the feeder is being robbed.
She knows that the feeder and tree it’s on are real because she can just go to the door and be let out and get there. And she will ask to go outside if she sees the other cats in the neighborhood in the yard.
But she doesn’t have a reaction to a mirror, seems to know it’s not real because she can’t get to the other side.
My cat, who is almost 20, is also indifferent to his reflection in the mirror. I’ve seen younger cats and kittens who were quite interested, though.
I saw film footage of the spot test being done to great apes and they figured it out remarkably quickly, it was quite impressive.
Our cat hates other cats.
Our apartment has a floor-ceiling mirrors on the bedroom closet (which runs the length of the room.
When we first moved in, our cat spent the better part of a week first trying to attack and then simply being visibly upset at the presence of the other cat in the mirror.
Now she completely ignores whatever is in the mirror. But I don’t think it is a sign that she figured out what it is (she never responds to things happening behind her in the mirror by turning around to look) as much as she finally realized that whatever that other cat/world was it would not be having any impact on her.
Could be wrong, of course. She has never reacted like that to other, smaller, mirrors.
I’ve tried my own mirror tests with her. She has toys where she’ll always come to me if I hold it up like I’m ready to play. If she’s in a spot where she can see me in the mirror but not me without turning around I’ve quietly held up the toys and never has she turned around and come to me, she just ignores it like she now does everything in that mirror.