Deschutes Public Library

The genius of birds

eng

no index present

non fiction

The genius of birds

dictionaries

945750995

Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, 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. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research and 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 ; Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird ..

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