Strawberry not a bird brain

A 5-year-old female parrot named Strawberry from Papua New Guinea performed better than many human investors in a stock investment contest, organisers in Seoul, South Korea, said.

Ddalgi (Strawberry) finished third against 10 investors in the six-week contest which ended on Wednesday, said Paxnet, an online stock market information provider.

Each started with 60 million won ($73,000) in cyber money and traded 10 million won worth of stocks in each transaction. Human investors picked any stocks they wanted.

The parrot, using its beak, made random choices from balls representing 30 blue chips including Samsung Electronics and had a 13.7 per cent return.

Human investors averaged a 4.6 per cent loss, with only two outperforming the parrot - one by 64.4 per cent and one by 21.4 per cent.