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The genius of birds / Jennifer Ackerman ; illustrations by John Burgoyne.

by Ackerman, Jennifer, 1959-

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Penguin Press, 2016.

Birds -- Behavior.

Birds -- Psychology.

Animal intelligence.

9781594205217 (hc.)

340 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-327) and index.

Introduction: The genius of birds -- From dodo to crow : taking the measure of a bird mind -- The bird way : the avian brain revisited -- Boffins : technical wizardry -- Twitter : social savvy -- Four hundred tongues : vocal virtuosity -- The bird artist : aesthetic aptitude -- A mapping mind : spatial (and temporal) ingenuity -- Sparrowville : adaptive genius.

"Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. New research suggests that some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight. Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how it came about. As she travels to the distant laboratories of Barbados and New Caledonia, the great tit communities of the United Kingdom and the bowerbird habitats of Australia, the ravaged mid-Atlantic coast after Hurricane Sandy and the warming mountains of central Virginia and the western states, she delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain that are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent. The Clark's nutcracker can hide as many as 30,000 seeds over dozens of square miles and remember where it put them several months later; mockingbirds and thrashers can store 200 to 2,000 different songs in a brain a thousand times smaller than ours; the well-known pigeon knows where it's going, even thousands of miles from familiar territory; and the New Caledonian crow makes its own tools. And Ackerman points out the impressive social smarts of birds. They deceive and manipulate. They eavesdrop. They display a strong sense of fairness. They give gifts. They play keep-away and tug-of-war. They tease. They share. They vie for status. They kiss to console one another. They teach their young. They blackmail their parents. They alert one another to danger. They summon witnesses to the death of a peer. They may even grieve. Ackerman delivers an extraordinary story that will both give readers a new appreciation for the exceptional talents of birds. A celebration of the triumphs of these fiercely intelligent creatures. Science writer Jennifer Ackerman is the author of Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body and Ah-Choo: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold"--Provided by publisher.

Burgoyne, John.

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