Review by Choice Review
This lovely book combines pictures of bird species, diagrams of experimental situations, and brain anatomy to provide information about bird intelligence. The illustrations are superb! Each short topic is covered in a pair of facing pages, allowing the reader to get clear and simple coverage of the specific subject matter. Nonetheless, this is not a book that an individual should read through in one run; after a while, some parts of the work appear to resemble a sound bite. The author departs from this process to give a thorough and fascinating discussion of tool use; this is hampered by the fact that the author mostly limits the discussion to birds. Each chapter begins well by delving into the topics, though at times this reviewer wanted to know more about the details and background of various procedures. The author is careful to say when and in what situations birds do not demonstrate intelligence, and speculates about what birds know about situations they encounter. The book amply proves the author's point--using the term "bird brain" to denote one's lack of intelligence has been thoroughly proven incorrect. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. --Jennifer A. Mather, University of Lethbridge
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Many of the discoveries chronicled here were made over the past two decades, and the picture emerging is that some birds have brains that process information in ways similar to those of the great apes. Emery (cognitive biology, Queen Mary Univ. of London) here looks at avian brain structure and how it may have evolved, as well as the different types of intelligence and the behaviors they give rise to (e.g., spatial memory and its role in migration and food caching). Complex ideas are made intelligible with the aid of sharp, and often stunning, design-gorgeous close-up photographs and smart infographics. The lovely depictions of the experiments supporting the science are particularly noteworthy. The text is broken up into small bits, usually with festive headings: "When Eating Vomit Can Be Clever" and "Remembrance of Spaces Past." There's much discussion of the acknowledged brainiacs of the bird world-ravens, crows, magpies, and jays-though pigeons, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and bower birds are also shown to be no dummies. Verdict For those interested in animal cognition, this is a solid survey. Birders will forgive Emery his rare mistake (he suggests that American robins fly south to breed); one guesses the book will only deepen their appreciation of the "feathered apes" in the garden.-Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
