This patriotic chicken can play the keyboard, inspire a nation

Remember Keyboard Cat? Well, he might finally have a spiritual successor, but it’s not a fellow feline.

A video posted by YouTube channel Two Creative Chicks features a chicken, a chicken with a very particular talent. She can play America The Beautiful on the keyboard.

Okay, so perhaps the chicken is better than Keyboard Cat. For one, she is actually deeply patriotic. And two, she clearly doesn’t actually need its owners’ help.

While it all seems to be a rather cruel joke when the clip begins, the fowl soon gains its composure, and pecks the relevant keys almost acceptable time with remarkable finesse and poise.

You might be wondering why or how this is possible, but there are a few explanations.

Have you ever witnessed a chicken play America The Beautiful on keyboard? Today is your lucky day

For once, a simple psychological technique recognised by B.F. Skinner and pioneered by Edward Thorndike called positive reinforcement could be at work here. If you give the bird a reason to peck a particular key (in this case, bird feed), and use a particular trigger (like an LED beneath the key), the chicken will eventually expect food whenever it pecks an LED.

And voila, you have yourselves a keyboard-playing chick.

The owners also confirmed in a comment that this is the process at work.

The video, although appearing on YouTube last week, has around 98 000 views, but we can’t help but wonder if that’s poised to climb rapidly in the coming weeks. Also, perhaps America should think about replacing its famed bald eagle with this chicken?

Have a look at the clip below.