'Jennifer Ackerman knows what she's talking about. Her knack for catching the personalities of different species in gorgeous, playful prose further collapses comfortable barriers between the human and the birdlike' Daily Telegraph From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds , a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds. Recent scientific findings have upended the traditional view of how birds live, how they communicate, forage, court, and survive. Abilities we once considered uniquely our own, such as deception, manipulation, kidnapping, collaboration, and play, have been revealed as the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, and a bird's propensity for competitiveness, theft, dancing, creativity, violence, and selflessness presents biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of - well - birdness. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behaviour, birds vary. It's what we love about them. '[Ackerman's] exhilarating book will leave you as awestruck by the complexities and contradictions of bird life as she is' San Francisco Chronicle 'Like a bowerbird, Ms.

Ackerman gathers and displays treasures to amaze and delight' Wall Street Journal.