The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
Product ID: 194423915
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds , a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. “There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries –– What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species—ours—but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call—and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all. Review: Superb Nature Writing - This is nature writing at its very best. Journalist Jennifer Ackerman has emerged as one of the leading voices for our avian friends. She travels the world to introduce us to some amazing birds and the painstaking research being done to better understand them. I lost count of the number of times I wrote “wow” in my marginalia. North American birds are on the whole somewhat boring, but in Australia, New Zealand and the tropics, their behavior is even more distinctive than their often colorful plumage. From laughing and tool making to cooperative parenting, birds have more going on upstairs than I ever imagined. I also thought I had learned about the birds and the bees long ago, but I don’t remember studying their “cloaca” (a three-in-one orifice). Perhaps I will develop the patience to go bird watching when I am in my 70s, but in the meantime, I have put out feeders and birdbaths. Two of our most frequent flyers are acorn woodpeckers, which have “one of the most complex communal nesting systems of any vertebrate” (p. 319) and Anna’s hummingbirds, which Ackerman wonderfully describes as “a ton of truculence packed into a feathered fraction of an ounce” (p. 13). While reading outside they can hover inches from my face. Males have dazzling ruby red throats when light is reflected at certain angles. Feeding frenzies are punctuated by dogfights and dive bombings. Just as I was reading Ackerman’s description, a female hummer crashed into the sliding glass door of my study. I scooped her up and marveled at how tiny she was. Before I could offer her some sugar water, she had flown off into our nearby redbud tree. “The Bird Way” is a welcome respite from a world turned upside down by Trump’s kakocracy (rule by the worst people). Corvids (crows) over Covid-19! My next bird books will be the lighter “The Birds of Pandemonium: Life Among the Exotic and the Endangered” and the more academic “Parrots of the Wild: A Natural History of the World’s Most Captivating Birds.” Ackerman has a brilliant chapter on New Zealand’s stupendous kea parrot, but I need to better understand the yellow-naped desertcart I grew up with. Poncho could outlive me... Review: A well-written, informative book. - Ever wonder how, with their relatively tiny brains, birds can learn, communicate and function at a much higher level than one would predict. Turns out, their brains are organized differently - and clearly much more efficiently. From this book, you'll learn about the amazing ways birds avoid nest parasitism (e.g., a cuckoo dumping its own egg into a nest, and when its offspring hatches, it pushes the rightful occupants out of the next to die). Some birds teach their unhatched "children" a code song, learned while still in the egg, without which they won't be fed. Others memorize the speckled pattern of their own eggs and will discard any with unrecognized patterns. Still others keep careful count of how many eggs were laid and will abandon the nest if an "extra" appears. Perceptual and learning abilities rival and often surpass those of primates whose brains weigh more than the whole bird. African grey parrots have the cognitive and emotional facilities of preschoolers. A worthy and fascinating read.
| Best Sellers Rank | #244,177 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #17 in Ornithology (Books) #64 in Bird Watching (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,715 Reviews |
P**K
Superb Nature Writing
This is nature writing at its very best. Journalist Jennifer Ackerman has emerged as one of the leading voices for our avian friends. She travels the world to introduce us to some amazing birds and the painstaking research being done to better understand them. I lost count of the number of times I wrote “wow” in my marginalia. North American birds are on the whole somewhat boring, but in Australia, New Zealand and the tropics, their behavior is even more distinctive than their often colorful plumage. From laughing and tool making to cooperative parenting, birds have more going on upstairs than I ever imagined. I also thought I had learned about the birds and the bees long ago, but I don’t remember studying their “cloaca” (a three-in-one orifice). Perhaps I will develop the patience to go bird watching when I am in my 70s, but in the meantime, I have put out feeders and birdbaths. Two of our most frequent flyers are acorn woodpeckers, which have “one of the most complex communal nesting systems of any vertebrate” (p. 319) and Anna’s hummingbirds, which Ackerman wonderfully describes as “a ton of truculence packed into a feathered fraction of an ounce” (p. 13). While reading outside they can hover inches from my face. Males have dazzling ruby red throats when light is reflected at certain angles. Feeding frenzies are punctuated by dogfights and dive bombings. Just as I was reading Ackerman’s description, a female hummer crashed into the sliding glass door of my study. I scooped her up and marveled at how tiny she was. Before I could offer her some sugar water, she had flown off into our nearby redbud tree. “The Bird Way” is a welcome respite from a world turned upside down by Trump’s kakocracy (rule by the worst people). Corvids (crows) over Covid-19! My next bird books will be the lighter “The Birds of Pandemonium: Life Among the Exotic and the Endangered” and the more academic “Parrots of the Wild: A Natural History of the World’s Most Captivating Birds.” Ackerman has a brilliant chapter on New Zealand’s stupendous kea parrot, but I need to better understand the yellow-naped Amazon I grew up with. Poncho could outlive me...
A**P
A well-written, informative book.
Ever wonder how, with their relatively tiny brains, birds can learn, communicate and function at a much higher level than one would predict. Turns out, their brains are organized differently - and clearly much more efficiently. From this book, you'll learn about the amazing ways birds avoid nest parasitism (e.g., a cuckoo dumping its own egg into a nest, and when its offspring hatches, it pushes the rightful occupants out of the next to die). Some birds teach their unhatched "children" a code song, learned while still in the egg, without which they won't be fed. Others memorize the speckled pattern of their own eggs and will discard any with unrecognized patterns. Still others keep careful count of how many eggs were laid and will abandon the nest if an "extra" appears. Perceptual and learning abilities rival and often surpass those of primates whose brains weigh more than the whole bird. African grey parrots have the cognitive and emotional facilities of preschoolers. A worthy and fascinating read.
C**D
well done, but…
Long, detailed, no photos, but well documented and interesting and I did learn a lot I didn’t know. Stick with it and you’ll learn a lot and enjoy. Just wish it had been shorter and included some photos.
K**Y
Book about bird behavior creates a sense of wonder
If you have even the most passing interest in what these dinosaur holdovers can do, you’ll want to read this book. Despite their brain size, birds plan, communicate, organize, and cooperate, even though they may be of different species. Jennifer Ackerman has pulled together fascinating research about birds demonstrating they have lives full of social complexity, requiring skills and abilities, humans are just now beginning to recognize. Ackerman breaks down her book into sections that detail bird communication, work, play, and parenting. Contained within each chapter are stories and observations from bird experts, and scientists who show birds are far more sophisticated than we ever thought. There are the keas who engage in play like kids let loose on a jungle gym, the cowbirds and cuckoos who place their eggs surreptitiously in others’ nests for other birds to raise, and the New Caledonian crows that construct tools to get to the food. Some birds mimic others to fool predators and display to potential mates their desirability. One species, the Carolina chickadee, can make the sound of a copperhead to keep predators at bay while they are nesting. All in all, this is a book that will make you respect and appreciate the complexity of bird behavior as well as create a delightful sense of wonder at all we have not understood about them. Besides bird lovers’, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the natural world and wanting to recognize better some of the avian behavior observable in their own backyards.
D**E
Very educational and marvelously entertaining
Almost all of my reading is fiction, but I am so glad I added this title to my monthly list. The author presents an astonishingly extensive array of fascinating facts about bird biology and behavior. These are carefully organized into chapters with a logical sequence but are presented in a conversational manner that retains the reader's interest. There is even a great index of topics and bird species at the end to make it easy to locate some story you want to share with a friend. Recommended with 5 happy stars 🌟.
A**L
Amazing info
Awesome lessons on what makes a bird “tick.” Fascinating information. Perfect gift for a bird lover.
J**S
Book
Haven't read it yet. But im anxious to! Looks like a good read.
K**N
Wonderful Read!
Fantastic Book! Great for bird enthusiasts young and old.
I**A
Amazing histories full of new concepts
I recommend this book not only to all birdlovers, but to anyone who likes to learn more about behaviors, evolution and what moves and motivates these fascinating animals. Easy to read.
B**D
Neue Verhaltensweisen
Ich hatte bereits das erste Buch von Ackermann gelesen, und das zweite ist ebenso empfehlenswert. Verhaltensweisen und auch die Biologie der beschriebenen Vögel wird auf verständliche und unterhaltsame Art präsentiert. Vor allem, Verhalten wird nicht verniedlicht, sondern als Überlebenstrategie präsentiert. Dieses Buch wird Vogelliebhaber bestimmt anregen, selbst Boeobachtungen vorzunehmen.
K**S
Birds will never seem the same after you've read this book
The Australian Brush Turkey is not really a turkey at all. It bears a superficial resemblance to American turkeys, but is in fact a megapode, literally "big foot". It is common in Eastern Australia, having adapted to urban life to live alongside man, and to irritate him by constructing enormous mound nests in inconvenient locations. It's parenting arrangements are in fact among the most extraordinary in the avian world. The male starts by constructing a mound, a small hillock in fact, scraping earth, plant material and so forth together. He works on his creation for up to three months, using an astonishing four tons of material to produce his nest. But it's not just a question of heaping on the material willy nilly. Like any compost heap, the mound will create its own climate as it decomposes and fungi, bacteria and invertebrates get to work. This is where the story becomes really fascinating; females take no part in building the mound or rearing the young. They wander around checking different mounds and eyeing up the males; she wants the fittest to father her young. She may visit a dozen mounds in a day before making her choice. Then after mating, she will dig a deep hole to the centre of the mound, test the temperature and then lay her eggs. That is it for her, job done. The male chases her away and she never knowingly sees her offspring. The male then spends the next 6 weeks tending to the nest to ensure that the temperature is just right by digging a hole each day and measuring it and repulsing predators. The embryos need just the right temperature to hatch. And when they do they find they are entombed in the mound, so these chicks spend a couple of days fighting there way out by kicking away the material to reach the light. And when they do, Dad may be there, not to greet them but to evict them from the site as soon as possible. I found this an extraordinary story of an apparently commonplace bird. Yet it is no more than one of dozens of case studies which Ms Ackerman uses to illustrate the myriad ways in which birds communicate play, feed, breed, hunt, and go about their daily lives. Ms Ackerman draws on research carried out on species in every continent. The reader ends up astonished and entertained by the intricacies of bird behaviour. But there is more to it than this. The book proves that the phrase "bird brain" to describe someone of limited intelligence is in itself totally stupid. Researchers are daily learning more about the secrets of birds' hidden lives. This wonderful book gives them a voice and ensures that the more we learn, the more respect we have for them. Strongly recommended.
S**.
Expands on knowledge of birds that highlights their intelligence and adaptability.
If you enjoyed The Genius of Birds,this book is for you.
L**R
Muy buen libro, pésimo trato de Amazon en el envío
El libro es bastante interesante y la autora tienen varios que han sido muy bien recibidos por el público y la crítica. Lo que no me gusta de la pasta blanda de este es que es un papel de no muy buena calidad, sumándole que Amazon me envión el libro en una bolsa de plástico sin nada de protección por lo que llegó bastante doblado de una esquina y algo sucio.
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