The next time someone calls you a birdbrain just smile and say thank you for they are truly giving you a compliment! Can you find 30,000 seeds a year after burying them? Can you find your way from Mexico to the Arctic without a map or GPS? Can you sing the same song in the EXACT same way millions of times over? I didn’t think so. Birds can. It’s amazing the things that these little bundles of feathers are capable of doing.
The author, and the scientists she interviews, try very hard not to anthropomorphize their subjects yet they illustrate the feats birds perform in ways so we can feel our human inadequacy. Simply, birds are darn good at what they do. Personally I’m a fan of the less loved birds and I was very happy to see one of them get a lot of ink for their smarts. That would be the corvids, the family including crows and ravens. I always knew I liked them for a reason!
The one sobering part of the book was the end when the author discussed climate change and loss of habitat and how it will affect the diversity of birds in the future. Many may not survive the coming decades which will greatly change our world and our woods. That fleeting pop of color winging by and the melodic song caught on a breeze may not be heard by future generations. Birds are trying to adapt, but sadly not all of them have the minds to adapt as quickly as they may have to to survive.
I listened to this book and while I enjoyed it I did have one problem with the way the book was read. To my ear the reader paused over long before many names and I found it jarring. Granted, that could just be me, and it didn’t stop me from listening to and liking the entire book.
