Jennifer Ackerman begins her latest work, The bird way: a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think, by explaining that "The idea for this book was seeded in conversations about novel bird behaviors with Louis Lefebvre of McGill University during research for my last book, The genius of birds. More than two decades ago, Lefebvre invented the first scale of intelligence for birds, based on a bird's behavior in the wild. How inventive is the species in its natural environment? Does it make use of new things and find creative solutions to the problems it faces? Does it try new foods? These activities are indicators of what's called behavioral flexibility, which is one fairly reliable measure of intelligence. It's the ability to do something new -- to change your behavior to address new circumstances and new challenges. Ornithological journals are full of short reports of these kinds of odd and interesting doings".
Speaking of odd and interesting doings, did you know that crows can use tools and are capable of facial recognition? Seriously. They are awesome, if murderous. {wink} Check it out on Nature: a murder of crows. And did you know that The Cornell Lab Bird Academy lets you build a bird AND play Bird Song Hero? And did you know that our library has almost 700 books about birds and birding? And over 60 DVDs? That's a lot to sort through, so here are some of our favorites:
Bird brain: an exploration of avian intelligence by Nathan Emery
1001 secrets every birder should know by Sharon Stiteler
Beautiful birds by Jean Roussen
The birds of America by John James Audubon
Nests: fifty nests and the birds that built them by Sharon Beals
Oh! The picture that made you click on this post?
The meaning of birds by Simon Barnes.
Was the title of this post a terrible pun? Yes. But I have no egrets.