The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think [B0596-PB]

2020 PB in nice clean condition. 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. 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.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I really loved this book. It is so interesting to read about all the different ways birds exist in the world, and there's so much more we will probably never know. There is a lot more to birds than meets the eye!"; "Most of my reading is fiction, but I am so glad I made an exception for this delightful book. A good part of the book was downright fun to read. After the first 25 pages, I wanted to run out and grab the little girls in the neighborhood and tell them they need to go study science because women are doing such exciting things in this field. Recommended with 5 happy stars from this reader."