☆☆☆ The Genius of Birds
by: Jennifer Ackerman
Most of my initial conversation today will be on the book I just finished reading: "THE GENIUS OF BIRDS" by Jennifer Ackerman. My opinion of the book is just that...MY opinion. All in all, if you're in the least interested in birds and what they 'think', why they 'act as they do', their 'learning skills', tool making and even bird art; the scientific approach of their brain/genius, then, this is the book for you!! Throughout the pages, there is wit, wisdom, and wonderment! You will read about decades of scientific research on the brain functions/size of brain through trials and tribulations of many species. There are success stories, and things that go 'flat'...literally [page 92 of the soft paperback edition] in reference to a Kea letting air out an automobile tire [intentional maybe? Who knows!] Another few pages that had me laughing out loud was a family parrot...learning the language of humans and imitating sounds that it heard throughout the day...for instance the human couple's voices where their tone was spot on and confused the two - it was the bird! And more antics, the sound of the cellphone ringing...again perfect pitch...and again, the bird! -The bird would even mimic the man, answering the phone "hello"...Uhuh, uhuh, uhuh"...then the sound of a flat ringtone; hanging up [page 146-47]. Perusing the book if you choose, you'll also learn theories about bird navigation, the use of stars and at times how they can become disorientated. At one point near the end, I found myself in just a tad bit of puzzlement. Throughout many pages Ms. Ackerman covered how birds can smell...the nerve is in their beaks that submit neurons to their brains...experimenting with crows and how to award them with a correct decision from identical shapes [the award was a morsel of food] --- it continued to pick the correct two pairs of matching images...well, perhaps, but she never mentioned that it was all possible the bird could SMELL the food?!! Why wasn't that brought to our attention? A worthy book to read, 4 stars out of 5 being the best kind of book...it is on the New York Times Bestseller List!
by: Jennifer Ackerman
Most of my initial conversation today will be on the book I just finished reading: "THE GENIUS OF BIRDS" by Jennifer Ackerman. My opinion of the book is just that...MY opinion. All in all, if you're in the least interested in birds and what they 'think', why they 'act as they do', their 'learning skills', tool making and even bird art; the scientific approach of their brain/genius, then, this is the book for you!! Throughout the pages, there is wit, wisdom, and wonderment! You will read about decades of scientific research on the brain functions/size of brain through trials and tribulations of many species. There are success stories, and things that go 'flat'...literally [page 92 of the soft paperback edition] in reference to a Kea letting air out an automobile tire [intentional maybe? Who knows!] Another few pages that had me laughing out loud was a family parrot...learning the language of humans and imitating sounds that it heard throughout the day...for instance the human couple's voices where their tone was spot on and confused the two - it was the bird! And more antics, the sound of the cellphone ringing...again perfect pitch...and again, the bird! -The bird would even mimic the man, answering the phone "hello"...Uhuh, uhuh, uhuh"...then the sound of a flat ringtone; hanging up [page 146-47]. Perusing the book if you choose, you'll also learn theories about bird navigation, the use of stars and at times how they can become disorientated. At one point near the end, I found myself in just a tad bit of puzzlement. Throughout many pages Ms. Ackerman covered how birds can smell...the nerve is in their beaks that submit neurons to their brains...experimenting with crows and how to award them with a correct decision from identical shapes [the award was a morsel of food] --- it continued to pick the correct two pairs of matching images...well, perhaps, but she never mentioned that it was all possible the bird could SMELL the food?!! Why wasn't that brought to our attention? A worthy book to read, 4 stars out of 5 being the best kind of book...it is on the New York Times Bestseller List!