The Genius of Birds

I would have liked this to be a lot longer – even more fun bird facts please!

The author really likes her bird puns but mercifully she dials them down a bit after the first couple of chapters.

It's great to see that the trend against anthropomorphism-phobia is growing strong among science writers (and some scientists). Observations based on the assumption that animal intelligence is likely different from human intelligence in degree rather than in kind have so much more explanatory power. Also, they're just a lot more interesting. Songbirds sing and bowerbirds build in order to attract mates, yes, but that tells us about as much about their psychology and is about as interesting as an analogous observation made about humans would be. Ackerman points out that the songbird gets a big shot of dopamine when he nails a song particularly well – and she's not afraid to surmise that this likely means that he gets a kick out of being awesome regardless of the outcome in the romantic department. She admits that it's not unreasonable to suspect the satin bowerbird of possessing a sense of artistry (I mean COME ON) given how much time he spends perfecting (admiring?) his own creation and learning his craft.

I like to ponder the fact that we're all robots programmed by evolution, trapped in the illusion of free will, and deluded about our own significance as much as the next person, but when it comes to books about animals I'd much rather hear from scientists who are drawn to questions and theories about animal internality and subjective experience.