Birds intentionally spread forest fires

That doesn't surprise me. Forest fires historically have not been a problem. They play various roles in maintaining a healthy and thriving ecosystem (see https://mylandplan.org/content/good-and-bad-forest-fires). It makes sense that animals that survived natural selection processes help cultivate those fires in a sort of synergistic cycle. For those interested, there's also a great TED Talk from a US Forest Service expert on why modern wildfires have become a problem (https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_hessburg_why_wildfires_have_g...), making clear why forest fires were not an issue all this time.

From an evolutionary point of view, this is a very good adaptation. In the somewhat longer term it might not be a good adaptation when people start killing these birds because they might spread fire.

(2018)