Do animals design?  

Had a hunch this post would...
Had a hunch this post would be something about Birds of Paradise. Fascinating bunch! Worth reading up on. David Attenborough reported on them for Nature. Well worth watching.

Oh sure Heath,
i'll bite. Absolutely not. While there may be variations in materials that make these displays in the strictest sense unique from one to the next, they are not designing and certainly not making art. Unless we are willing to define designing as copying directly what everyone else does, of course. The designing that got these displays to the state they are at now is evolutionary, so you could not count an individual bird as a designer, rather evolution itself or the deity of your choice. As for the writer's statement about art, i won't go into it here (your welcome). But if you are interested you can read any of mine or Pegboards ( nearly identical views on the subject of art) opinions about the nature of art. Suffice it to say I think the author is engaging in annoying hyperbole with his art comments. I assume it is just his way of saying,"these things are amazing". And they certainly are.

Actually,
the part I like is the chuckle I get thinking that is hilarious the lengths to which some guys will go to get laid. Our two species have that much in common anyway.

I just thought it was interes...
I just thought it was interesting and have no fixed thoughts about the article.
I grew up near these birds though and saw them often, I wonder what would happen if you left a pot of blue paint near white objects, would they paint them? If what New Caledonian crows do is any indication I think they might.