Pigeons can be trained to tell art apart.

If you ever see a pigeon wandering the halls of the Met, it’s likely it flew in from the outside and got lost. However, the pigeon may also be there to admire the museum’s world-class paintings, as these birds can be trained to recognize and discern between different artistic styles.

In 1995, a team at Japan’s Keio University led by professor Shigeru Watanabe examined this behavior. They showed 10 cubist works by Pablo Picasso and 10 impressionist pieces by Claude Monet to two groups of pigeons, rewarding one group with food if they pecked upon seeing a Picasso and the other for reacting to a Monet. Watanabe eventually deduced that the groups could pick out paintings in whichever style earned them treats with impressive accuracy. The pigeons continued to display an ability to discern between artworks when they were later shown pieces by other artists in each genre.