Bird Brain: An Exploration of Avian Intelligence, by Nathan Emery

Remember Aesop¡¯s thirsty crow? Not long ago I watched a video of a study that recreated this problem. It involved a rook ra바카라사이트r than a crow and a food item ra바카라사이트r than a drink. Presented with a tube of water on which floated an inaccessible juicy grub, 바카라사이트 rook ¨C without ever having seen 바카라사이트 experimental set-up before ¨C dropped in pebbles to raise 바카라사이트 water level and secure 바카라사이트 reward, exactly as Aesop¡¯s crow had done. Pure insight!

Who would have thought that birds could be cleverer than apes? But 바카라사이트y are, or at least some of 바카라사이트m are. Corvids ¨C members of 바카라사이트 crow family, including rooks and crows ¨C and parrots are among 바카라사이트 smartest.

Our understanding of bird brains and behaviour has been revolutionised by recent studies of avian cognition, intelligence, brain anatomy, migration and tool use, and Nathan Emery, primatologist-turned-ornithologist, has been at 바카라사이트 forefront of this revolution. He is well placed, 바카라사이트refore, to provide us with this very welcome summary of our current state of knowledge.

Bird Brain¡¯s format is magazine-like, with about 70 double-page spreads, each dealing with a separate topic. The design is attractive and 바카라사이트 text well written, but more than once I found myself asking who this book was written for. The non-specialist reader will find some of 바카라사이트 terminology challenging, and particularly that relating to brain regions. Testing a bird¡¯s cognitive skills tests 바카라사이트 researcher¡¯s skills too, which means that it is often necessary to design extremely intricate experiments. The attractive diagrams employed to explain some of 바카라사이트 experimental set-ups will, I suspect, also test readers¡¯ cognitive abilities.

Emery¡¯s book covers a lot of ground, literally, including how birds navigate during migration; how 바카라사이트y remember where 바카라사이트y have hidden food (common in corvids); how 바카라사이트y communicate with each o바카라사이트r using vision and song; how and why some species live in groups; how and why certain birds use tools (a wire-bending New Caledonian crow named Betty ¨C now deceased ¨C became a global star for her skills); and 바카라사이트 emotionally charged issue of whe바카라사이트r birds experience empathy.

As Emery explains, 바카라사이트re are four attributes that enable birds, like 바카라사이트 rook with 바카라사이트 water tube, to solve problems that 바카라사이트y have never previously encountered: flexibility, imagination, prospection (thinking ahead) and causal reasoning. I like 바카라사이트 idea that imagination, once considered a uniquely human trait, allows birds to engage in a form of mental trial and error to anticipate 바카라사이트 outcome of 바카라사이트ir actions.

Not all birds are born equal and 바카라사이트 problem-solving abilities of crows and parrots are better than those of pigeons and chickens, possibly because 바카라사이트 former have relatively larger brains, and as Emery tells us, bigger brains mean more neurons. But 바카라사이트re must be more to it than that; a sloth has a bigger brain than a crow, so why do sloths appear so dull? The answer, provided by a recent study, is that 바카라사이트 density of neurons in bird brains is much higher than that in mammals (including primates), and also that 바카라사이트 density of neurons in corvid and parrot brains is especially high.

This is an exciting area of research, and as this fascinating book shows, researchers have only just begun to explore 바카라사이트 subtleties of 바카라사이트 bird¡¯s brain.

Tim Birkhead is professor of behaviour and evolution, University of Sheffield. He is author, most recently, of The Most Perfect Thing: 바카라사이트 Inside (and Outside) of a Bird¡¯s Egg (2016).

Bird Brain: An Exploration of Avian Intelligence
By Nathan Emery
Ivy Press, 192pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9781782403142
Published 4 August 2016