Nature Literature discussion

Please add your comments about The Genius of Birds here.

I regularly write essays about birds, and I've found Ackerman's book to be one of the best recent sources of information and a model of science writing: thoroughly researched, well-grounded in evolutionary biology, insightful, and written in an engaging style. In my recently published book "Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds," I quote a passage in which she shows that birds within a given species, like people, vary widely in individual personality: "the bold and the meek, the curious and the cautious, the calm and the nervous, the fast learners and the slow learners." She explores many fascinating topics: the distinction between "genius" and "intelligence" in animals, the workings of avian cognition, the "spatial ingenuity" of birds, and the connections between birds learning songs and humans learning language. Highly recommended.

Looking forward to the read. I have a flock of 8 hens. Anyone who hangs with hens gets an education in both individual intelligence and personalities as well as flock intelligence.

I'd love to start off with asking you about birds. What is your favorite bird(s) that you see each year in your neighborhood? Do these birds nest in your area or are they just winter visitors.

Mine? My favorite summer nesting bird is the goldfinch- we have both the diminutive lesser goldfinch and also the American goldfinch. They are all over our farm, and they have such a cheery call. I can identify their call anywhere on the farm- it's wonderful, and the bright yellow of the American males is so easy to pick out in the trees.


Do you know about this site ? All About Birds by Cornell... Link your favorite bird for us to see. Here is mine.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/A...

I see Sam has kept hens, and I am curious who else has had direct experience with birds? Bird watching or working on bird related projects, or raising birds, or even having birds as pets - birds as part of the family?

Quote I like from C 1
"Birds are so often encountered this way, as disembodied voices" (19).

I could relate to this, because as a bird watcher -- often you cannot see the birds, but you can hear them, and sometimes you must learn to recognize the voice of the bird to know what bird it is. I know all the voices of the birds on my farm, so sometimes when I am out walking with the donkeys and the four dogs, I hear the voices of the birds and in mind's eye I see them, though I do not look up and see them. I feel and know they are there.

Also, if I hear a voice a do not know- is there is a stranger passing through- I will stop dead and begin to look around.

Another quote- which is a question, and I like how Ackerman continually gives us questions to reflect upon. "What makes one bird smarter than another? How do you measure a bird's intelligence anyway?" (20).

This question contains a world for me. It seems to suggest something more about us and how we gauge intelligence, then about the animal or bird. If one bird can do something that another bird cannot - is the bird that cannot do less intelligent? How do we judge this?

The chickadee will come to our hand to get a peanut but the nuthatch will not. Is the nuthatch less smart? What is wrong with this question?

Quote I like from C 1
"Birds are so often encountered this way, as disembodied voices" (19).

I could relate to this, because as a bird watcher -- often you cannot see the birds, but you can hear them, and sometimes you must learn to recognize the voice of the bird to know what bird it is. I know all the voices of the birds on my farm, so sometimes when I am out walking with the donkeys and the four dogs, I hear the voices of the birds and in mind's eye I see them, though I do not look up and see them. I feel and know they are there.

Also, if I hear a voice a do not know- is there is a stranger passing through- I will stop dead and begin to look around.

Another quote- which is a question, and I like how Ackerman continually gives us questions to reflect upon. "What makes one bird smarter than another? How do you measure a bird's intelligence anyway?" (20).

This question contains a world for me. It seems to suggest something more about us and how we gauge intelligence, then about the animal or bird. If one bird can do something that another bird cannot - is the bird that cannot do less intelligent? How do we judge this?

The chickadee will come to our hand to get a peanut but the nuthatch will not. Is the nuthatch less smart? What is wrong or missing from this question?

When my husband and I moved out to our hobby farm ten years ago, one of the first things that really struck me is how LOUD it is when the birds come back in the Spring, and how desperately quiet it gets in the Fall when they've all left. I never really noticed that in the towns and cities where we've lived.

It's difficult for me to peg down even a few favourite birds, but since we're on the subject of their voices, here are some that I love to hear: Northern Cardinal (it's even my ringtone!), Red-Winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, the Flicker, and the plaintive call of a couple of Canada Geese heading over the fields at twilight.

Others that send a thrill down my spine when I see and/or hear them: Tundra Swans (their call always brings to mind war cries of the Plains Indians for some reason), Pileated Woodpeckers, Belted Kingfishers, Bald Eagles, and Great Blue Herons.

I’m not sure how to share a link but the PBS Nature episode “My Life as a Turkey” is revelatory as well as entertaining. So many good books about birds and birdwatching (two shelves in my library not counting ebooks). I’m looking forward to seeing scissor-tailed flycatchers arriving soon, my favorite breeding bird in our area. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/S...
The Genius of Birds is intriguing. I’ve just arrived at the section on bower birds. I’ll post a review once I’ve finished reading.

Sher wrote: "Quote I like from C 1
"Birds are so often encountered this way, as disembodied voices" (19).

I could relate to this, because as a bird watcher -- often you cannot see the birds, but you can hear t..."

Sher, I like Ackerman's take on bird intelligence. She says she prefers the term "genius" to intelligence, and she defines genius as the knack for knowing what you’re doing, catching on to your surroundings, making sense of things, and figuring out how to solve your problems. As for the chickadees and nuthatches, I think it's a matter of boldness vs. shyness, or confidence vs. wariness, rather than intelligence. Ackerman says that chickadees possess a “deep-rooted self-confidence.” At Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary north of Boston, it's a popular pastime to hold out a palm with sunflower seeds for the songbirds to feed on. Very predictably, the chickadees come right away, then the nuthatches follow, and then, if you're patient enough, the Tufted Titmouse. Bird species vary tremendously in how "confiding" they are.

I'm enjoying the book. I have nuthatches, goldfinches, chickadees at my feeder. Can't imagine any of them eating out of my hand. I live across from a park with ponderosa/lodgepole pine forests. We have Cooper's hawks, pileated woodpeckers, flickers. And many, many crows.

My closest interactions are with my tame 8 hens. I have them in a coop, but also let them run free in our large yard and unimproved alley-way. YOLO for chickens. I know they may get nailed by a dog (and a hawk has tried twice) but they are so much happier. I love observing the "hive mind, hive intelligence" of the flock, vs. the individual personalities and intelligence (or "genius).

Oh-- and we have far too many turkeys in our neighborhood. Upwards of 70 sometimes. They are the bane of my garden. I like watching the chicken-turkey interactions. The toms just started strutting yesterday. Always fun to watch as much as I wish they would all go away.

So I read this book on my backporch, observing all the bird behavior.

We've been enjoying a flock of American goldfinches in our backyard. They will completely (and quickly) empty the seed feeder, only to leave a pile of seed on the ground. But then the ground feeders rejoice -- most notably dark-eyed juncos, a pair of cardinals, and a couple of rabbits.

Early in the book, an 8-stage test by crow 007 is mentioned. I had seen the video years ago, but sought it out to watch again this week. Here is the link, for other curious readers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbSu2...