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A review by sevenlefts
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman
4.0
I'd read Ackerman's The Genius of Birds about three years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew I'd like this one, too. And I did.
Ackerman looks at three broad categories of bird behavior -- talk, work, play, love and parenting -- and writes about species that are changing our ideas about how birds behave and what is going in on their tiny yet powerful brains. Several times she makes the point that a lot of this new research is being done on southern hemisphere and tropical birds, which have been much less studied than the more familiar (and often migratory) birds of North America and Europe. Turns out that not having to devote brain space and energy to long-distance migration leaves a lot of room for developing very innovative mating, hunting and child-rearing strategies. A lot of the examples she describes come from Australian bird researchers.
I think my favorite species she examined were the extremely playful Kea parrots of New Zealand. I really admired her ability to describe to the general public the incredibly innovative studies that ornithologists around the world are doing to try and figure out why birds do all the amazing things they do.
I'm currently taking a birding class, and I'm constantly thinking about birds. I kept checking eBird to find out about the various species Ackerman mentions in the book. It really slowed me down!
Ackerman looks at three broad categories of bird behavior -- talk, work, play, love and parenting -- and writes about species that are changing our ideas about how birds behave and what is going in on their tiny yet powerful brains. Several times she makes the point that a lot of this new research is being done on southern hemisphere and tropical birds, which have been much less studied than the more familiar (and often migratory) birds of North America and Europe. Turns out that not having to devote brain space and energy to long-distance migration leaves a lot of room for developing very innovative mating, hunting and child-rearing strategies. A lot of the examples she describes come from Australian bird researchers.
I think my favorite species she examined were the extremely playful Kea parrots of New Zealand. I really admired her ability to describe to the general public the incredibly innovative studies that ornithologists around the world are doing to try and figure out why birds do all the amazing things they do.
I'm currently taking a birding class, and I'm constantly thinking about birds. I kept checking eBird to find out about the various species Ackerman mentions in the book. It really slowed me down!