Jennifer Ackerman

It occurred to me that those drawn to birds are drawn to the reflection of humanity. This book clarifies why so much of bird behavior resembles our own in remarkably familiar, yet novel, ways.Art, innovation, mental-mapping, collaboration, fidelity, adventurism, and romanticism. It is for a love of the human species that that birds are worth protecting. They are an early indicator of humanity's own demise or continuation. They are canaries in this big coal mine.

I enjoyed this deep dive into the world’s owl species, covering topics like behavior, diet, migration patterns, mating and nesting, raising young, and even measures of intelligence relative to other birds. It was also interesting to read about cultural attitudes toward owls; for example, in some societies they are considered bad luck and often suffer the consequences. Jennifer Ackerman highlights a number of people who have devoted their careers to research and/or rescue and rehabilitation show more of these fabulous birds, and are now doing all they can to preserve them as climate change impacts their food supply and habitat. Highly recommended. show less

I try to respect nature and am honestly curious about how the natural world operates. However, despite an immense appreciation of life, I am no scientific specialist or ornithological hobbyist (i.e., bird-watcher). As such, I cannot judge the academic merits of this text, but I can appreciate the literary merits. Ackerman dramatically brings alive the lives of birds in a way that demonstrates that much more is going on than first meets the eye.

The size of a rice kernel, birds’ brains are show more famously small, yet they have an incredible amount of neurons in such a small space. In the past, many explained that birds’ ways are hard-wired by genetics. The newer research that Ackerman cites clearly calls this into question. First, much diversity of behaviors exists within this population. Second, studies show that birds in different regions learn over time different practices. There clearly is a lot going on underneath a bird’s proverbial hood.

Ackerman demystifies birds’ social lives by showing their language, play, mating habits, and parenting schemes. For instance, cooperative parenting is a huge thing in the bird world. Who knew? Maybe we humans can learn from their example. The section on sex and mating is likewise fascinating due to varied rituals among many species. Some mental acumen is required to keep track of the different names of birds – of which I am frankly unfamiliar – but their behaviors, incredibly common among all birds, are fascinating in detail.

I would have liked to have read more about birds’ impact on humans and humans’ impact on birds. Only the final chapter addresses this, but more needs to be devoted to this topic. Can we humans learn anything from birds’ social behaviors? Can anything be specifically done to stop the tide of climate change on bird environments? What about insecticides limiting bird feeding? Ackerman addresses these questions at a high level, but more detail is clearly needed. I think this topic could have been addressed without delving head-first into a Silent Spring type of scenario.

Overall, this book aims to find an audience among the general public who are interested in newer research about birds. Writers, journalists, and those in the public sphere who want to learn about birds without reading a dry textbook will especially benefit from Ackerman’s lively style. When I next see a group of birds in a field along the side of the road, I might take a few more seconds to see what they’re up to. (Hopefully, I’m not driving a car!) When I do so, I will certainly think of her adages in this book. show less

Accurately measuring intelligence requires the right yardstick, except that there is no such thing. There are just too many kinds of intelligence for one yardstick to measure. Jennifer Ackerman concedes in “The Genius of Birds” (2016), "I would flunk these sorts of intelligence tests readily as birds might fail mine." She is speaking of the intelligence tests that various species of birds can pass with ease. Take for instance the ability of some birds to hide thousands of seeds and then show more remember where to find them months later or the ability of a homing pigeon to find its way home from hundreds of miles away.

Scientists might frown on my use of the word intelligence because it sounds to them like anthropomorphizing. They prefer the word cognition when talking about birds and other animals. Give Ackerman credit for being intelligent enough to use the word, however, because it is intelligence that we are talking about.

Even the word cognition has been something of a concession for science, which had long preferred thinking of every amazing thing an animal does as just instinct. By now there have been enough experiments and observations to recognize that birds, more than most animal species, can solve challenging problems. Young birds don't know their songs by instinct but must learn them over a long period of trial and error, just as a child learns to talk. Sparrows in New Zealand learned to use the sensors for a cafeteria's automatic doors so they could fly in to steal food, then fly out again.

Ackerman covers many different kinds of intelligence in birds, including the artistry of bowerbirds and the ability of mockingbirds to learn not only their own song but the songs of many other species of birds.

Some birds seem to be smarter than others, and Ackerman devotes much of her book puzzling over why. Are species that eat a variety of foods smarter than those with a more limited diet? Are birds that live in social groups smarter than loners? Are birds that migrate smarter than those that stay in one place? While discussing such questions, she describes the work of numerous authorities in the field without ever losing her audience, made up of readers of ordinary intelligence, like me, who are humbled by the genius of birds. show less