Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans

by John M. Marzluff, Tony Angell

Stan Coren’s groundbreaking The Intelligence of Dogs meets Bernd Heinrich’s classic Mind of the Raven in this astonishing, beautifully illustrated look at the uncanny intelligence and emotions of crows.

CROWS ARE MISCHIEVOUS, playful, social, and passionate. They have brains that are huge for their body size and exhibit an avian kind of eloquence. They mate for life and associate with relatives and neighbors for years. And because they often live near people—in our gardens, parks, and cities—they are also keenly aware of our peculiarities, staying away from and even scolding anyone who threatens or harms them and quickly learning to recognize and approach those who care for and feed them, even giving them numerous, oddly touching gifts in return.

With his extraordinary research on the intelligence and startling abilities of corvids—crows, ravens, and jays—scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell amazing stories of these brilliant birds in Gifts of the Crow. With narrative, diagrams, and gorgeous line drawings, they offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and our shared behaviors. The ongoing connection between humans and crows—a cultural coevolution—has shaped both species for millions of years. And the characteristics of crows that allow this symbiotic relationship are language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk-taking, and awareness—seven traits that humans find strangely familiar. Crows gather around their dead, warn of impending doom, recognize people, commit murder of other crows, lure fish and birds to their death, swill coffee, drink beer, turn on lights to stay warm, design and use tools, use cars as nutcrackers, windsurf and sled to play, and work in tandem to spray soft cheese out of a can. Their marvelous brains allow them to think, plan, and reconsider their actions.

With its abundance of funny, awe-inspiring, and poignant stories, Gifts of the Crow portrays creatures who are nothing short of amazing. A testament to years of painstaking research and careful observation, this fully illustrated, riveting work is a thrilling look at one of nature’s most wondrous creatures.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Birds, Animals, Biology, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 2012

About the author

John M. Marzluff is professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington and is the author or coauthor of several books, including In the Company of Crows and Ravens; Dog Days, Raven Nights; and Welcome to Subirdia.

Reviews

[Zain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning! ⚠️ Review May Become Boring! 🙃😎🙃

A short time ago I came across an old photo. My brother was on the back porch with a crow and a dog.

I have fond memories of the crow. I have no memories of the dog. My brother was nine, so I had to be three years old.

Blackie was the crow’s name and he was playful and full of fun. He loved to call me using my mother’s voice and I would come running. I fell for it every time.

Around the same time that I found the picture, this book was a suggestion for me, and I tore into it happily.

The interesting things are that crows are smart and engaging, as any crow lover can tell you. Marzluff and Angell uses multiple sources, research and experience to confirm the belief that crows not only “make tools, but they understand cause and effect.”

“Like humans, they possess complex cognitive abilities.” They can “discriminate, test, learn, speak, steal, deceive, seek revenge, windsurf, remember, play with cats and mourn.”

The book has multiple anecdotes that are interesting with hilarious stories about crows and their naughty machinations.

But unfortunately, the tedious jargon from the research and experiments with workings of their brains and the MRI’s and the testing of the dopamine and norepinephrine and serotonin and, etc., etc., etc. is more than l could take.

So to spare you all the boring technical talk that fills up 70% of the book, I am completing my review right here.

So a book that I should have breezed through was constantly put to the side. What I hoped to give five stars, l can only give four. 🙄

These four stars are only for the crows. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Lynne King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in the foothills of the Pyrenean mountain range in the Pays Basque (evidently in English it is the Basque Country which doesn’t do it justice) in south-west France. This is an area of outstanding beauty that I will never tire of. I get no greater pleasure than sitting on my terrace either on my own, or with friends or with my Labrador Chloé drinking a cup of tea, coffee or a glass of wine, purely reflecting and basking in all of this exquisite landscape.

Crows make up a large part of this landscape too. They fascinate me no end for some obscure reason but do they make a row when there’s a group of them! The term a murder of crows suits them brilliantly.

I love living in the countryside, looking at the cows, sheep, seeing the changes with the four seasons but sadly noting the absence of rabbits, foxes, deer and wild boar. Living in a region that is full of hunters has regrettably brought about this lack in the countryside as has also happened with fishing. There are many sections of the rivers stating “no kill” during the fishing season. Still that’s life and it doesn’t do to dwell too much on it.

But what really incenses me is seeing traps left by our hunting fraternity to catch the crows, ravens, jays – the corvids – as they are considered as vermin here. Well this year I saw a cage in one of the fields when I was out with Chloé that really upset and tormented me. It wasn’t purely the fact that there were two crows trapped inside the cage but there was also a poor hedgehog. I met a friend en route home and I told him that I was going to set them all free. He looked rather sternly at me and I was advised not to attempt that.

On that note I’ll return to this book. I never thought I would ever read a book about crows but I saw a friend’s review just recently and thought, why not? Am I glad I did too.

It isn’t just the fascinating neuroscience aspect regarding crows’ brains, their behaviour and also the numerous anecdotes (some are amazing!) from John Marzluff, Professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington, but the gorgeous illustrations by Tony Angell, who apart from being an artist is also a sculptor.

Yes it is an academic reference book, and “heavy” in parts regarding crows’ brains but at the same time it is very amusing and witty with its anecdotes and also written in layman’s terms.

Reading this book has demonstrated the intelligence of crows, revealing their sophisticated and cognitive abilities, how they manage to survive and surprisingly enough how they view us. Yes they do feed on carrion but then we, well the majority of us anyway, all eat meat and it’s just a different way of savouring a meal. As for learning that crows can mimic humans and speak, rather like the parrots well that in itself is remarkable. I was also rather touched to hear that these birds mate for life. Good for them!

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Do you think Good Reads will ever give us the half-star option, or should I just kill myself now?

[Persephone's Pomegranate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book about members of the Corvidae family.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just an updated In the Company of Crows and Ravens; read both if you're as fascinated as I am. Otoh, if you want to choose one, choose this, as it is newer and incorporates new knowledge and studies.

This has less on cultural co-evolution, and fewer pictures. It also has more skepticism and less mysticism. And more anatomy & hard science (which I admit I read lightly), including appendices. If you want to read a sample before bringing it home from store or library, I recommend the chapter "Awareness" as the most exciting.

I really like the title of this. Gifts, as in talents, as in what the birds can accomplish. Gifts, as in benefits to us from knowing them, including, for example, friendships and a heightened understanding of our place in the world, and also as in tangible gifts like beads and nuts.

"Worldwide, cats are implicated in the extinction of thirty0three species of birds. An invasive species when let outdoors, cats are estimated to kill nearly 500 million birds each in year in the United States alone, as well as many native small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles."

"Consciousness appears to depend on an integrated forebrain, and especially on its reciprocal connection to the thalamus. The connected loops of neurons that originate in the brain stem, pass through the thalamus, and course up to the forebrain before checking in again with the thalamus or commanding muscles are an important neural basis of consciousness. Animals with loops between the thalamus and forebrain have expectations--in other words, they are able to consciously think. Birds and mammals have these loops. Reptile's loops are minimal. Loops are unknown in amphibians."

"Unlike in mammals, hair cells in a bird's ear damaged by loud sound or toxins regenerate. Old birds don't need hearing aids." (While considering this, also consider that some birds live lifetimes comparable to those of apes; crows and raven are juvenile for several years and may live several decades even in the wild.)

"Golfers near Leavenworth, Washington, were upset when a crow stole a bagged sandwich from their cart. When a crow returned with the now-empty bag and replaced it in the cart two holes later, they were dumbfounded. Similarly, in Barclay Sound kayakers were upset when ravens stole a fresh pie, and were really angered when the pair returned with the pan the next day and dropped it on the boatmen." (Note: *the next day*!)

"Fun is not an abstract concept....We--humans, corvids, lab rats, and probably all vertebrates--build better brains through play."

Weapon use between a pair of Stellar's Jays and a crow at a feeder: "The jay swooped at the crow... but the crow held its ground.... After the second swoop, the jay flew into a nearby mountain mahogany bush and twisted off a four-inch-long pointed stick. With the sharp end facing forward, the jay held the stick in its beak and lunged toward the crow. The joust barely missed the crow, who lunged back at the jay, causing the weapon to fall onto the feeder. The crow recovered the stick and, as the jay had done, gripped the dull end, aimed the sharp end toward the jay, and lunged. That was was effective. The jays flew off, and crow followed in hot pursuit, stick in beak."

Unfortunately there is no 'for further reading' and the index is not helpful, as I happened to want to check on three different things and none were listed. Still, I highly recommend the book to all with the slightest interest.

[Katey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book definitely has more neuroscience and anatomy than the authors' previous book, In the Company of Crows and Ravens, but it's still easily understood by a layperson (me). I find it more interesting that all these observations and anecdotes about behaviour in corvids are backed up with explanations, where there currently are any. I also notice and appreciate that the previously held view in animal ethology and biology, the one where anything even remotely seeming like that grave "sin" of anthropomorphisation, is dying out, and a new, broader and more respectful and incorporating approach that throws away that whole Us and Them mentality is becoming the norm among many animal scientists.

And while I normally am wary of anecdotes in science, animal behaviour is one of those areas where you really do need anecdotes to help you complete the puzzle. But the authors realise this need too, and I think are still cautious enough with anecdotes when it's warranted, and still apply the science.

One particular thing that troubled me though was the advocacy of pet crows (it is currently illegal per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to keep a pet crow- but perfectly legal per your state to kill them whenever). Though this chasm exists, I don't think it's a good idea to advocate ownership of wild animals. Sure, the licencing and regulations as a wildlife rehabilitator this section also advocates, but labelling the crow as a "pet" is insulting to the bird, at the very least. People are barely able to handle the domesticated species as companions, and a crow is definitely more to handle than a dog (and an intellectual giant compared to some people!), and I am definitely against wild, captive animals being kept by the public at large.

That said, I would love to have a corvid companion.

[Bibliovoracious · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love crows. These guys pound the science pavement to back up what we know anecdotally - corvids are smart, scary smart - and give proofs for how and why their brains function remarkably similar to ours.

I like it when writers give shape and vocabulary to something I vaguely “know” or believe: we human species are not “at the top” of anything. Our accomplishments don’t prove that we are “greater” in any way. Just different. Lots of other species have forms of intelligence that we can’t appreciate because we can’t know them well enough through our own interpretive lens to understand all that’s going on there.

Not that these men meant to convey all or any of that; but a committed study of crows, who have a form of intelligence that’s pretty accessible to us due to similarity, shows that there is more than meets the eye, and there is so much more still to learn about them, so... how about all those other species more different from us?

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first half, I read this book at normal speed and then just exactly in the middle I started to scan and speed read. I read certain behavioral sections entirely. Other physiological neuron path and brain form network, I did not read the entire text, just studied the graphics. If you are looking for a book about Crows as pets, Crows' owners long term experiences and other Crow /human interaction first person accounts as witness? You will find far, far more of the dense brain function and anatomy form for Corvid group birds instead.

This is not a book that the normal bird observer will seek out for pleasant tale reading. And I have mixed feelings upon some of the summations, as well. Because as good as this author seems to be within description of differences in brain forms and their functions (not only in the Corvid group but to difference to mammalian brains)and in prose form to the observations of others? Well, he still doesn't seem to have the placements of this group within other Ava groups (and there are thousands). And what Biology or specific credentials for this highly scientific information does he have personally in practice? He's seems more like an accomplished transform technical writer for informational detail than a scientist in that wider or specific field. Particularly not for any sense of inclusions within the broader field of vertebrate forms, certainly.

That may be harsh. But I wanted far more in the quality and specific projections of "bird think" and far less in the physical descriptions and functions of the neuron circuits in Crow brains. Looking at them and understanding the loops? That's not why most people are interested in Crow actions. Or Crow ability to social life memory for every nuance of "tricking" or caching.

It was well worth the read, and I did learn some pertinent facts that I never knew before reading this. Because I have loved birds, had birds as pets (one cockatiel lived to 36 years) and see myriads of types at the lake nearby in MI- I have been reading continually upon Bird study for over 30 years.

So teaching me that Crows do not have cross brain spans, can actually hold half 1/2 their brain completely asleep and 1/2 awake while flying quite well, and other such minutia- that was the best part of this read for me.

Crows are aggressive as are the majority of other birds in this group. So I wanted to know how the pet or long term backyard relationship for mood difficulty or possible troubled interchange played out. And because the tales didn't tend to delve into that territory of reality physical contact much at all? That was the most disappointing aspect for me while reading. Did Dickens cage it? Most practical applications for these intersects are never detailed. You can gentle tame a parrot group member, or Cockatoos, or my beloved Nymphicus Hollandicus (now a completely separate genus all of its own), the cockatiel- but Crows are wild in a much more non-domestic sense by their very natures and IMHO also, size and strength.

It's an interesting book. But not what you may guess it covers by the title. Anatomy lessons prevail.

Ironically, we see huge flocks of starlings, dozens of different song birds, sparrows and finches galore, geese, ducks, and now many other water bird species too by us, but not many crows. And never in multitudes. And hawks, usually Red Tail, everywhere. So it was SO strange than coming home just today I saw a huge crow finishing off a rabbit road kill and never moving more than 4 feet away as successive cars passed it by. It looked like it was grinning. That beak is quite a tool.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parrots and the corvid family of crows, ravens, and jays are considered the most intelligent of birds. I never thought I would be such a fan of crows until I read "Gifts of the Crow" by John M. Marzluff, a professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington. Crows mate for life, they help feed their younger siblings and they are very smart. They are considered very social and have their own dialects!
Who knew? If you feed crows long enough they recognize your face and if you hurt/disturb them, they will remember and caw or swoop at you. Crow researchers found that crows can remember up to two years a human face and they can make their own tools.They have the ability to solve complicated problems and adapt to tough situations which can easily be seen in the way they gather their food and collect resources. Fascinating book.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was rather disappointing. A fair number of anecdotes, none of them surprising if you've read news articles about crows. Very little description of the science of studying crow intelligence. Bernd Heinrich's "Mind of the Raven" is vastly superior, being basically a series of experiments (although often inconclusive ones). This has only a couple descriptions of experiments, and they were mostly not particularly novel or interesting. For example, they describe showing crows different images, then anesthetizing them and putting them through a PET scanner. Then they over-interpret the results. Basically, it goes from "we have no idea how crows do this, but it must be somewhere in their brain" to "we have no idea how crows do this, but it might be related to these [large and vaguely defined] areas of the brain." So what? The book is also overwritten, and I personally would have preferred photographs to the sketches.

One interesting experiment they do is to capture ravens while wearing a mask, and then for the next five years continue to wear the mask, or give it to undergrads to wear, around campus. The ravens passed the identity of the "bad guy" down and kept harassing him, in fact in larger and larger groups, and even when the mask was worn upside-down.

> Not only was the crows' hatred of the caveman persistent, it was getting worse with time. In the five years since we trapped on campus, the number of birds scolding the caveman on a typical walk has increased threefold. And the vast majority of those who berate the Neanderthal were never even touched by him

[Gary Brecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I thought you might find this interesting,” was the comment my librarian wife made as she plunked the book on our kitchen table. It was certainly a book I might not have picked for myself, but ever since I’d acquired a mystical relationship with crows (I refer to them as “my brothers”) I’ve gained a reputation for being able to call them in due to my skill at imitating their calls. One time in Wisconsin I was able to lure in several outside a restaurant and they swarmed noisily overhead in response to my calls. This book confirmed my suspicions about crows…members of a group ornithologists call Corvids, which includes Ravens and Jays.

The authors have blended reputedly true stories of crow behavior with hard scientific facts about the animal’s brain and its complex functions. For me, the entertaining stories about human interactions with crows were the most interesting portions of the book. However, for those with a scientific bent, the diagrams of the bird’s brain and descriptions of its utility in making Corvids nearly on an intellectual par with the greater apes must be equally fascinating. My recommendation for this book? Try it, you might like it.

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because this was published in 2012, I was worried it wouldn't be that great since it wouldn't include all of the incredible studies conducted on crows since then. Though I would love for him to put out an updated version of this book, with the new studies included, this 2012 book felt new and satiating. Crows and ravens engage in such surprising and complex behaviors. In this book you will find a neuroscientific explanation for things such as why birds' speech patterns result in mimicry instead of constructing novel words or sentences, why they engage in certain behaviors, and why they can make long flights without sleeping (half their brain falls asleep while the other half remains active and allows them to carry out flight). But, on most pages, you will also find belly-laugh-worthy antics carried out by crows and ravens that humans have witnessed throughout history (such as ravens repeatedly removing wiper blades from people's cars. LOL).

I feel in love with these brilliant creatures.

[Lacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here is where they lost me: In the last chapter, there is a line that goes something like "Many young injured and orphaned corvids that are taken to wildlife rehabilitators are euthanized because the rehabilitators aren't able to care for them and it is illegal to give them to families that would like to adopt them. We believe that select folks should be able to keep American Crows as pets as long as it is closely regulated. Isn't keeping a crow as a pet better than it dying?" (This is not a direct quote - I don't have the book in front of me right now.) This stuck with me so much because, in my experience, the opposite is true! Yes, there are conditions much worse than death that defenseless animals - dogs, cats, crows, squirrels, deer, box turtles, etc. - are forced to live in.

I do not share their confidence that there is a way to regulate the living conditions for these birds (or any other wild animal) as there isn't good system in place now to make sure pets are properly cared for. Every day, there are cases of abuse and animal exploitation that come to light and, as heartbreaking as that is, I would hate to add corvids to the list of pets being abused and neglected.

It is my opinion that the laws prohibiting private citizens from keeping our wild birds as pets are there to protect the birds and it is doing a decent job of it. Let's not screw the birds by kidnapping them from their native homes. Instead, let's sit back and just enjoy their antics in our yard and in the park and on youtube.

Until this last chapter, I felt this book was ok. The anecdotal sections were fun and, while I appreciated that the authors wanted to bring in the science behind it, the technical parts lost me and I ended up just scanning through those to pick up the highlights. It was interesting but I feel like they could have simplified it a bit more or at least shortened those parts. Some sections felt over written or over explained and I was just ready for the authors to move on and get to the point.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corvids rule.

Oh, the book, right. Those looking merely for anecdotes about the shenanigans of corvids might want to pass this one by, for, although those little stories are here in abundance, this is also a serious scientific book using current neuroscience to explain corvids complex behaviors and unparallelled intelligence. How quickly we move from a crow pulling a turkey's tail to dopamine and k-receptors!

For those that enjoy the science or can persevere, the insights into the bird brain are well worth the effort--although I won't be handing out any prose awards for the scientists. Readable enough and the illustrations are lovely.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always liked crows and have often interacted with them, so I really enjoyed this book. They are so smart, and some of the stories are almost unbelievable! I did get a little bogged down in the technical details, but a bored reader could skim these short sections.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of really fascinating stuff in here and I will never look at corvids the same way again. However this was one of those pop-sci books that seemed to suffer from under-editing and under-production (likely due to anticipation of lower readership or something). It was pretty obvious which writer wrote which section, and I found myself skimming all the neuroscience details because I just wasn't able to follow it very well. Also, only being about a decade old, I was sort of surprised about the lack of ethics discussion. I don't know though because I haven't done animal research but it seems weird that it was just fine (from both an animal ethics and human safety perspective) to antagonize crows on a university campus for science. Maybe they did have a major ethical review on it that they just didn't mention - personally I would have liked to know about it.

Not sure if I'd recommend to a casually interested person but glad I read it! Corvids are incredibly smart and interesting.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in middle Georgia where there were many pine trees with birds and squirrels living in these trees. My daddy kept a bag of pecans in the trunk of his car. Every day, he came home from work, whistled, and the birds and squirrels came flying and scampering to him for a free dinner. Some took food from his hands.

One bird my dad did not like was the blue jay. If he saw them eating in the back yard, he would bang on the window trying to scare them off. I wish he was living now, he would enjoy reading Gifts of the Crow. He then would appreciate these jays more, because of their sophisticated intelligence.

The subtitle of the book "how perception, emotion, and thought allow smart birds to behave like humans" lets us know we will read details of how the crows and other relatives in the corvid family have seven key human characteristics, such as delinquency, frolic, passion and wrath. Author John Marzluff says, "To fully exploit us, as crows have done, requires a quick brain that associates risk with reward, adjusts to failure, and tempered first responses with emotion." Marzluff has watched birds for three decades, and still sees them do something new.

There are many anecdotes about crows, magpies, and other corvids. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them, however I skipped the pages and brain-maps that told about their neurology systems -- too scientific for me! I would have loved to see photos of some of the birds.

Marzluff says he hopes that people will learn "that to call someone a "birdbrain" is a compliment, not an insult." It is great to share our backyards with these crows and jays.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors love crows and have spent many years studying them. My attraction to crows is in the past and I sadly currently live without crow experiences in my daily life. So I was looking for a book that might replace some of what I am missing. This book satisfy that need a bit but not nearly as much as I was hoping. From the beginning to the end the book focuses on how chemicals in the brain make things happen for people and crows. A little bit of that goes along way for me. I am not sure I would have made it through the entire book except for the fact that I was listening to it in the Audible format so it just kept marching along page after page. I did learn the Jays are related to crows though I have never heard of them talking or being pets.

There are several other books about crows and if you are looking for some general information this book may not be your best choice. It does lean heavily on the science. Regrettably I have not read any of the other books so can offer no recommendation or comparison.

[Sara Van Dyck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super blend of science, neuroscience, and anecdote. Besides the fascination and charm of the crows themselves, what I especially admire about this book is the way Marzluff presents a model for the way a good scientist can investigate a subject which might seem speculative. He presents a behavior, often an observed incident, and lists possible explanations for this behavior. Instead of pre-judging them, he considers each in turn, looking at how likely it is considering other evidence and explanations. For instance, if a person finds a small “gift” object where he has been feeding crows, is this a gift from the crow? An accident? A trick played by another person? Sometimes he can reach a conclusion; sometimes he says that more accounts or controlled experiments are needed. The conversation between Tony Angell and Marzluff at the end of the book shows how carefully Marzluff has thought about this approach.

[Debbie Howell · Rating 1 out of 5]

For what it's worth, I learned a lot about crows and found the anecdotes about crow behavior interesting. For me, there was too much detail about how a crow's brain works. Actual quote: "Neural signals leaving the nidopallium go to the lower, rear portion of the forebrain, the arcopallium, which ushers electrical commands down independent, parallel circuits through the thalamus, midbrain, and hindbrain nuclei to muscle fibers whose actions create behavior." I enjoy books about the human brain, but either I'm not as interested in the details of crow brains, or the writing didn't make the material as accessible for non-scientists as other books I've read. I didn't find the illustrations particularly helpful or interesting. The author's knowledge of and enthusiasm for his subject were excellent, but this book didn't do it for me.

[Harris Schwartzreich · Rating 1 out of 5]

The authors sound like very smart dudes doing interesting research, but this book put me to sleep worse than a high school biology textbook. Instead of telling interesting crow stories or explaining challenging concepts relating to intelligence and consciousness, they spend the book laundry-listing all the different neurochemicals and the lobes of the brain, and constantly fall back on Darwinian essentialism to explain everything crows do. Yes, everything all animals do can be described as evolutionarily advantageous but it's not a very interesting answer! And no, I did not need that chapter on Edgar Allen Poe and other people throughout history who liked crows. I, too, have wikipedia.

Crows are amazing, read a digestible article on the internet about them instead of this book.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked up this book I wasn't expecting so much brain chemistry to be in it. Though interesting at first, it became more like filler as the book went on since a lot of it was things that "we believe" instead of things that "we know." The first few chapters were a little brain psychology heavy but I enjoyed the anecdotes that were told through the book.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a textbook about the mental processes that occur in a birds brain as it thinks and remembers, however it often reads like popular literature. Marzluff has filled his book with intriguing anecdotes about the antics of crows, ravens and jays (corvids) to give us a glimpse into the mental life of these astute creatures. It is a little bit humbling to learn how much they have in common with us. In many ways these birds are as intelligent as we are (tool use and creation, reasoning to puzzle solve), and in a few ways they may even be our superiors. For one thing, they are capable of telling individual people apart, while it is beyond our ability to tell one crow from another. I love that Marzluff credits corvids with the ability to emote in familiar ways. Most scientists seem to deny any emotions to animals beyond fear. Yet, corvids obviously grieve their dead, hold a grudge, and enjoy play. I also love that he recognizes that a brain that is so different from our own can function in similar ways. Kudos to John Marzluff and his intriguing research!

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to learn more about the intelligence of crows and this book obliged. While heavy in neuroscience, there were a lot of great anecdotes from the researcher's/writer's experience and people he had contact with. The book takes a scientific approach and I thought was mostly realistic about it's conclusions. It's a short read, as it's only a little over 200 pages, with the rest being references, notes, and the index.

In short, corvids are one of the more intelligent creatures on the planet. Their use of tools, facial recognition, and use of play indicates far more intelligence than we grant most animals. After reading this book, I'll be observing.

[Erin Rutkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough book on the inner workings of a crow's brain. I would be lying if I said I understood most of the neuro-brain stuff. That being said, this book really dives into that subject, and someone with a better brain stuff background than I would certainly enjoy it more.
Other than those parts, the book was enjoyable and fascinating. I got this copy out of the library, but I would like my own to mark up and review further on down the road.

[Mila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an in-depth look at the large brains of crows, anatomy and physiology, (which I skipped over) interspersed with anecdotes (which I enjoyed). I found out that not only crows but also honeybees recognize individual human faces which for me somewhat lessens the crows "skill".

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read other boox filled with stories of crow behavior and hijinx, which were much more interesting. This book is more for the person who's interested in the specific anatomy and physiology of the crow (and corvid brain in general) that lead to the fascinating behaviors we see. Despite my medical background, I found this far too technical to be a worthwhile read.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by animals in general and crows in particular, and Marzluff and Angell - whom we're very lucky to have living and working among us here in Seattle - are really wonderful at bringing to light some of the incredibly intelligent and "human-like" (for lack of a better term) behaviors of corvids and giving some of the science and biology involved without just bogging you down in dry scientist-speak. To this layperson it seems like they've found a pretty good balance of science and compelling anecdotes to show just how remarkable these animals are.

ALSO: I read the whole thing, only to find myself mentioned on the very last page and named in the acknowledgments (among dozens of others) for the album of songs about crows I released several years ago. This is a not-at-all-humble brag, but it's one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me, so I had to share.

[Alex Rochelle]

This was a very good book.

[Pamela Dolezal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about corridor intelligence. I loved all of the little stories of human and crow bonding. I listened to the last half - good Audible narration.