What do you think?
Rate this book
Bird Brain: An Exploration of Avian Intelligence
Why birds are smarter than we think
Birds have not been known for their high IQs, which is why a person of questionable intelligence is sometimes called a "birdbrain." Yet in the past two decades, the study of avian intelligence has witnessed dramatic advances. From a time when birds were seen as simple instinct machines responding only to stimuli in their external worlds, we now know that some birds have complex internal worlds as well. This beautifully illustrated book provides an engaging exploration of the avian mind, revealing how science is exploding one of the most widespread myths about our feathered friends―and changing the way we think about intelligence in other animals as well.
Bird Brain looks at the structures and functions of the avian brain, and describes the extraordinary behaviors that different types of avian intelligence give rise to. It offers insights into crows, jays, magpies, and other corvids―the “masterminds” of the avian world―as well as parrots and some less-studied species from around the world. This lively and accessible book shows how birds have sophisticated brains with abilities previously thought to be uniquely human, such as mental time travel, self-recognition, empathy, problem solving, imagination, and insight.
Written by a leading expert and featuring a foreword by Frans de Waal, renowned for his work on animal intelligence, Bird Brain shines critical new light on the mental lives of birds.
Birds have not been known for their high IQs, which is why a person of questionable intelligence is sometimes called a "birdbrain." Yet in the past two decades, the study of avian intelligence has witnessed dramatic advances. From a time when birds were seen as simple instinct machines responding only to stimuli in their external worlds, we now know that some birds have complex internal worlds as well. This beautifully illustrated book provides an engaging exploration of the avian mind, revealing how science is exploding one of the most widespread myths about our feathered friends―and changing the way we think about intelligence in other animals as well.
Bird Brain looks at the structures and functions of the avian brain, and describes the extraordinary behaviors that different types of avian intelligence give rise to. It offers insights into crows, jays, magpies, and other corvids―the “masterminds” of the avian world―as well as parrots and some less-studied species from around the world. This lively and accessible book shows how birds have sophisticated brains with abilities previously thought to be uniquely human, such as mental time travel, self-recognition, empathy, problem solving, imagination, and insight.
Written by a leading expert and featuring a foreword by Frans de Waal, renowned for his work on animal intelligence, Bird Brain shines critical new light on the mental lives of birds.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2016
15 people are currently reading
639 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 19, 2019
I picked up this book because I hoped that I’d be able to recommend it to people who want to understand the basics of avian cognition. I cannot. While the book as a physical object is lovely, the author does a decent job of explaining things like parts of the brain accessibly, and some of the infographics are outstanding, the book is marred by sloppy thinking and ugly stereotyping throughout.
Apart from the (expected) problem of reporting the results of truly gruesome experiments (such as deliberately mutilating the brains of living birds) without a word of empathy or a discussion of ethics, I saw these persistent flaws:
1. Gender stereotyping — I think it was when the author described a rooster as presiding over a group of hens that I reached my limit. Anyone who has spent significant time with chickens allowed to form their own social groups and choose their own activities within settings approaching those of their wild ancestors knows that the roosters are not in charge. Every once in a while, a particularly presumptuous rooster will think he should be in charge, but hens quickly divest him of that idea. Both roosters and hens do tend to have intra-sex hierarchies (although even these are more fluid and complex than the author’s loose talk of “pecking orders” would suggest) but it is simply not the case that the males are over the females. This false presumption of male supremacy, along with all sorts of stereotyped interpretations of behaviors, runs through the book. This is an old, old tactic of sexism: Making male rule look “natural” via biased interpretations of animal behavior presented as fact.
2. …And other mapping of human preoccupations onto animals — The author admiringly mentions Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey but evidently missed the primary gift that they and Birute Galdikas brought to ethology, which was to demonstrate how much we can learn when we look at animals afresh, without presuming that their behavior will reflect our own preoccupations (male supremacy, hierarchy, competition etc.). It’s not just that previous male researchers had been watching apes in labs and other unnatural settings, but also that those previous researchers “saw” what their stereotypes told them to expect. This author’s assumptions, over and over again, hearken back to those bad old days. And it’s all completely unnecessary! He could have reported various fascinating facts without “explaining” them by reference to tired tropes.
3. Out-dated evolutionary theory presented as fact — I lost track of how many times (eventually I started skimming because I just couldn’t bear it any more) the author presumed sexual selection to be the be-all and end-all of evolution, attributing this, that, and the other to male efforts to demonstrate their genetic fitness to prospective partners. It’s not just that he left out everything we know about same-sex courtship, affection, pair-bonding, parenting, and sex among birds. It’s that the whole book presumes the dreary worldview implicit in the ideology that the sole function of life is reproduction. If we can’t imagine a more vibrant world than that, then maybe birds should be experimenting on us to see if we have the capacity for imagination rather than vice versa.
4. Inadequate assessment of experiments — OK, so imagine that a scientist sets up an experiment in a lab, reasoning that if birds can do some thing then they will have demonstrated a particular cognitive capacity. Since that’s a hypothesis, then — if they do that thing in the course of the experiment — then it’s right to say that the findings suggest that birds, or those particular birds, have that capability. So far so good. But if they do not do that thing, WE CANNOT CONCLUDE THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE THAT CAPABILITY. Why not? Because maybe they just weren’t interested in doing whatever the researcher wanted them to try to do. Maybe the study was poorly designed. Maybe they were depressed from being captured and kept in a lab. Maybe they were hatched and raised in a lab and had lesser cognitive capacities than they would have had if raised in a socially and materially more stimulating environment. There are twelve thousand reasons that a particular bird might not involve herself in a particular false project or try very hard to solve an unnatural problem that reflects human preoccupations rather than her own. But, again and again, the author reports that this, that, or the other bird does not have this, that, or the other capability because one or more groups of those birds failed to solve some problem manufactured by people.
Just in case anyone relevant is reading this review: I recommend that the publisher include at least one feminist scholar of science when sending books like this out for peer review. Really, we need to get the sexism out of popular science. Next, I recommend that the author read up on 21st century evolutionary theory, because we’ve come a long way from the days that every little thing was reflexively attributed to sexual selection. It might be a good idea for him to pick up Bagemihl’s Biological Exuberance, which was late 20th century but still goes a long way toward demolishing the notion that the sole explanation for every animal behavior is the quest to get their personal genes into the next generation.
Apart from the (expected) problem of reporting the results of truly gruesome experiments (such as deliberately mutilating the brains of living birds) without a word of empathy or a discussion of ethics, I saw these persistent flaws:
1. Gender stereotyping — I think it was when the author described a rooster as presiding over a group of hens that I reached my limit. Anyone who has spent significant time with chickens allowed to form their own social groups and choose their own activities within settings approaching those of their wild ancestors knows that the roosters are not in charge. Every once in a while, a particularly presumptuous rooster will think he should be in charge, but hens quickly divest him of that idea. Both roosters and hens do tend to have intra-sex hierarchies (although even these are more fluid and complex than the author’s loose talk of “pecking orders” would suggest) but it is simply not the case that the males are over the females. This false presumption of male supremacy, along with all sorts of stereotyped interpretations of behaviors, runs through the book. This is an old, old tactic of sexism: Making male rule look “natural” via biased interpretations of animal behavior presented as fact.
2. …And other mapping of human preoccupations onto animals — The author admiringly mentions Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey but evidently missed the primary gift that they and Birute Galdikas brought to ethology, which was to demonstrate how much we can learn when we look at animals afresh, without presuming that their behavior will reflect our own preoccupations (male supremacy, hierarchy, competition etc.). It’s not just that previous male researchers had been watching apes in labs and other unnatural settings, but also that those previous researchers “saw” what their stereotypes told them to expect. This author’s assumptions, over and over again, hearken back to those bad old days. And it’s all completely unnecessary! He could have reported various fascinating facts without “explaining” them by reference to tired tropes.
3. Out-dated evolutionary theory presented as fact — I lost track of how many times (eventually I started skimming because I just couldn’t bear it any more) the author presumed sexual selection to be the be-all and end-all of evolution, attributing this, that, and the other to male efforts to demonstrate their genetic fitness to prospective partners. It’s not just that he left out everything we know about same-sex courtship, affection, pair-bonding, parenting, and sex among birds. It’s that the whole book presumes the dreary worldview implicit in the ideology that the sole function of life is reproduction. If we can’t imagine a more vibrant world than that, then maybe birds should be experimenting on us to see if we have the capacity for imagination rather than vice versa.
4. Inadequate assessment of experiments — OK, so imagine that a scientist sets up an experiment in a lab, reasoning that if birds can do some thing then they will have demonstrated a particular cognitive capacity. Since that’s a hypothesis, then — if they do that thing in the course of the experiment — then it’s right to say that the findings suggest that birds, or those particular birds, have that capability. So far so good. But if they do not do that thing, WE CANNOT CONCLUDE THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE THAT CAPABILITY. Why not? Because maybe they just weren’t interested in doing whatever the researcher wanted them to try to do. Maybe the study was poorly designed. Maybe they were depressed from being captured and kept in a lab. Maybe they were hatched and raised in a lab and had lesser cognitive capacities than they would have had if raised in a socially and materially more stimulating environment. There are twelve thousand reasons that a particular bird might not involve herself in a particular false project or try very hard to solve an unnatural problem that reflects human preoccupations rather than her own. But, again and again, the author reports that this, that, or the other bird does not have this, that, or the other capability because one or more groups of those birds failed to solve some problem manufactured by people.
Just in case anyone relevant is reading this review: I recommend that the publisher include at least one feminist scholar of science when sending books like this out for peer review. Really, we need to get the sexism out of popular science. Next, I recommend that the author read up on 21st century evolutionary theory, because we’ve come a long way from the days that every little thing was reflexively attributed to sexual selection. It might be a good idea for him to pick up Bagemihl’s Biological Exuberance, which was late 20th century but still goes a long way toward demolishing the notion that the sole explanation for every animal behavior is the quest to get their personal genes into the next generation.
June 26, 2018
If I tell you that Bird Brain reads like a textbook, does it make you cringe and consider closing the browser window?
Allow me to add, with haste, that it makes for an incredibly gorgeous, engaging, approachable textbook that I wish all textbooks I've ever encountered could have been like. Does that help?
There are many books out there on bird behaviors, including intelligence. Since I'm a bit obsessed with corvids, I tend to gravitate towards these books but sometimes, sometimes, they can be a bit more... involved than I am willing to invest at the time. This is a ridiculous declaration, I must insist, because I find this sort of thing fascinating and who doesn't want more and more details and evidence and studies about the thing they're obsessed with?
I suppose that sometimes it's just the density, the depth of scientific diving, the discussion about things I may appreciate but am unlikely to retain in my everyday life wherein I am fascinated by ravens and crows to the extent that I will follow them about, but they, unfortunately, don't tend to factor into dinnertime discussions.
(And to provide further honesty, I'm typically disappointed as to the images provided in most books like these - often dull silhouettes of the subject, black and white, grainy shots from studies, that sort of thing. When one is learning about such magnificent creatures, shouldn't the images reflect that excitement?)
Emery strikes a fantastic balance here, providing enough scientific discussion for those who want to invest in it to be happy but not too much that one's mind starts wandering into distraction or confusion. The charts and diagrams are helpful and in depth enough to feel like Emery trusts his audience to have more than a third graders' understanding of the processes. Grainy, disappointing study images are replaced with beautiful illustrations and full page layouts are given over to gorgeous portraits of the birds being discussed.
Emery covers all the bases for indications of avian intelligence, including food finding, migration, mating rituals, social interactions, teaching, extended logic-indicating behavior, and even empathy and grieving (and further explains just how signs of empathy are indicators of intelligence). There were some things that I, as a reader already invested in the subject, knew about but there was quite a bit here that I didn't; certainly enough be surprised and pleased. For example, I knew about and have seen images and film of male bowerbirds creating these large, complicated, and even artistic (to human eyes) bowers in their mating efforts, but didn't previously understand that they actually intentionally create these illusions that make the bowers appear to have a depth they do not actually have.
This is a gorgeous book, both scientifically and artistically.
Princeton University Press, who provided an advanced copy for my review, releases Bird Brain on September 14, 2016.
Allow me to add, with haste, that it makes for an incredibly gorgeous, engaging, approachable textbook that I wish all textbooks I've ever encountered could have been like. Does that help?
There are many books out there on bird behaviors, including intelligence. Since I'm a bit obsessed with corvids, I tend to gravitate towards these books but sometimes, sometimes, they can be a bit more... involved than I am willing to invest at the time. This is a ridiculous declaration, I must insist, because I find this sort of thing fascinating and who doesn't want more and more details and evidence and studies about the thing they're obsessed with?
I suppose that sometimes it's just the density, the depth of scientific diving, the discussion about things I may appreciate but am unlikely to retain in my everyday life wherein I am fascinated by ravens and crows to the extent that I will follow them about, but they, unfortunately, don't tend to factor into dinnertime discussions.
(And to provide further honesty, I'm typically disappointed as to the images provided in most books like these - often dull silhouettes of the subject, black and white, grainy shots from studies, that sort of thing. When one is learning about such magnificent creatures, shouldn't the images reflect that excitement?)
Emery strikes a fantastic balance here, providing enough scientific discussion for those who want to invest in it to be happy but not too much that one's mind starts wandering into distraction or confusion. The charts and diagrams are helpful and in depth enough to feel like Emery trusts his audience to have more than a third graders' understanding of the processes. Grainy, disappointing study images are replaced with beautiful illustrations and full page layouts are given over to gorgeous portraits of the birds being discussed.
Emery covers all the bases for indications of avian intelligence, including food finding, migration, mating rituals, social interactions, teaching, extended logic-indicating behavior, and even empathy and grieving (and further explains just how signs of empathy are indicators of intelligence). There were some things that I, as a reader already invested in the subject, knew about but there was quite a bit here that I didn't; certainly enough be surprised and pleased. For example, I knew about and have seen images and film of male bowerbirds creating these large, complicated, and even artistic (to human eyes) bowers in their mating efforts, but didn't previously understand that they actually intentionally create these illusions that make the bowers appear to have a depth they do not actually have.
This is a gorgeous book, both scientifically and artistically.
Princeton University Press, who provided an advanced copy for my review, releases Bird Brain on September 14, 2016.
October 25, 2016
This book covers much the same ground as Jennifer Ackerman's excellent The Genius of Birds, but with a very different approach. It's strengths are in its concision of information & the gorgeous visuals: Emery uses diagrams to easily convey hard neuroscience, for example. The differing evolutionary paths of the primate and bird brain is easy to understand thanks to simple use of colour and design. On the downside - it covers many topics very briefly, and in the textbook approach, Emery tends to present the material as incontrovertible at times, references are buried (at least in the ebook version) and context of the research is simplified. (What is this with textbooks anyway? They seem to be written deliberately to imply the writer is simply imparting information to the inferior, the scientific method, doubt, debate and ambiguity are rarely to be seen: surely this is exactly the stuff of scholarship?)
Having said that, I am glad I read both Ackerman's and this, despite the crossover of much material. Bird Brain is a short 200 pages, and packs a big punch on the neuroscience alone for that commitment.
I do regret getting the eversion a bit. I do a lot of my reading outside in the sun (with the birds!) and as this would never work on the kindle, I spent far too long squinting at the pages on my tablet, and it took me a while to finish. I suspect the glossy hardcover is much nicer.
Having said that, I am glad I read both Ackerman's and this, despite the crossover of much material. Bird Brain is a short 200 pages, and packs a big punch on the neuroscience alone for that commitment.
I do regret getting the eversion a bit. I do a lot of my reading outside in the sun (with the birds!) and as this would never work on the kindle, I spent far too long squinting at the pages on my tablet, and it took me a while to finish. I suspect the glossy hardcover is much nicer.
September 19, 2023
The content of the book is very good.
The format of the book is horrible. No section is longer than 3 pages. Most are a single page. It's fluffy and dumbed down in places.
Cute but is there an actual book version of it instead of a coffee table book?
The format of the book is horrible. No section is longer than 3 pages. Most are a single page. It's fluffy and dumbed down in places.
Cute but is there an actual book version of it instead of a coffee table book?
October 5, 2019
A very average textbook.
The photographs deserve 4-5 stars but the text isn't particularly engaging or captivating so 2 stars and I'm going to try Candace Savage's book instead.
The photographs deserve 4-5 stars but the text isn't particularly engaging or captivating so 2 stars and I'm going to try Candace Savage's book instead.
January 11, 2026
A nice overview of cognition research into birds, with a nice layout, beautiful pictures and drawings and great diagrams. Some of the descriptions of neural pathways were a little hard to follow, and perhaps unnecessary. Overall enjoyed the book.
January 21, 2017
Overall a fantastic and quite comprehensive look at avian intelligence. There is a strong emphasis on graphics and clear compelling explanations throughout of not only what we know, but how we know it about bird brains and cognition. My only real complaint about the graphics is that the gray text on a white background might look nice from a design perspective, but make for needlessly difficult reading.
April 7, 2018
Se supone que debe ser en un lenguaje de divulgación, que interese y clarifique... creo que no lo logra. Las gráficas para mostrar los experimentos me parecen poco claras. Sólo lo entretenidas que son las aves salva el libro. :)
January 7, 2017
Too in-depth for me however
August 23, 2024
A highly documented exploration of bird cognition and intelligence, with stunning visuals.
October 5, 2022
Not for anyone lacking a strong interest in birds and bird brain physiology. For this reader, many more examples of bird behaviors by people with long experience of them would have been welcome.
It was interesting that many corvids and a few other birds appear to have intelligence equal to apes, of which I am one, and a brain region corresponding (but independently evolved) behaviorally to our prefrontal cortex, our human pride and joy. And birds, being the only living descendants of the dinosaurs, got there first and have had more time to practice. Like a hundred million years.
The writing is fair but far from expert, and the organization was not ideal for making an interesting read.
Try instead "Mind of the Raven" by Bernd Heinrich for something more of a page turner, which "Bird Brain" certainly was not.
It was interesting that many corvids and a few other birds appear to have intelligence equal to apes, of which I am one, and a brain region corresponding (but independently evolved) behaviorally to our prefrontal cortex, our human pride and joy. And birds, being the only living descendants of the dinosaurs, got there first and have had more time to practice. Like a hundred million years.
The writing is fair but far from expert, and the organization was not ideal for making an interesting read.
Try instead "Mind of the Raven" by Bernd Heinrich for something more of a page turner, which "Bird Brain" certainly was not.
September 6, 2025
The author starts by explaining brains and brain functions and it shows differences in brains of various bird species. He then shows that many birds are intelligent, the most intelligent likely being corvids and parrots. To do this, he presents various studies that focus on navigation, communication, tool use, a sense of self, and more.
Not sure if I might have rated it higher if I’d been able to read it all in one go, rather than half of it, then I had about 4 months in between being able to pick this up again. I believe I have read about some of these studies before (or similar ones, anyway), and I certainly believe that all animals are smarter than many humans give them credit for. There are also some beautiful (many color) photographs of birds, but also illustrations to help explain some of the studies.
Not sure if I might have rated it higher if I’d been able to read it all in one go, rather than half of it, then I had about 4 months in between being able to pick this up again. I believe I have read about some of these studies before (or similar ones, anyway), and I certainly believe that all animals are smarter than many humans give them credit for. There are also some beautiful (many color) photographs of birds, but also illustrations to help explain some of the studies.
November 22, 2021
Highly interesting book on the exploration of avian intelligence! Describes many different researches and results on the intelligence of different bird species. Also describes very well how these results could be interpreted and what footnotes should be taken into account. Large amounts of interesting knowledge and possible discoveries! Prickles the motivation and interest for further research!
May 14, 2017
will change everything you know about birds and their brains but also mammalian brains! read!!
March 3, 2019
Really nicely produced book and a fascinating subject but the writing is a bit dull.
January 27, 2022
The miniscule text and run-on sentences make this nearly impossible to read.
March 31, 2017
nice book with great illustrations. but less fun to read after reading bird sense and the thing with feathers. not so much new information any more. its only a bit more technically explained.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews