--- product_id: 41165512 title: "The Genius of Birds" price: "£12.27" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/41165512-the-genius-of-birds store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Genius of Birds **Price:** £12.27 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Genius of Birds - **How much does it cost?** £12.27 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/41165512-the-genius-of-birds) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description “Lovely, celebratory. For all the belittling of ‘bird brains,’ [Ackerman] shows them to be uniquely impressive machines . . .” — New York Times Book Review “A lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence.” — Scientific American An award-winning science writer tours the globe to reveal what makes birds capable of such extraordinary feats of mental prowess Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. In The Genius of Birds , acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores their newly discovered brilliance and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research, Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are shifting our view of what it means to be intelligent. At once personal yet scientific, richly informative and beautifully written, The Genius of Birds celebrates the triumphs of these surprising and fiercely intelligent creatures. Ackerman is also the author of Birds by the Shore: Observing the Natural Life of the Atlantic Coast. Review: Scientific writing at its best - I have been a birdwatcher for a couple of decades, and have done research on human behavior in evolutionary and comparative context. But I was positively awed by what I learned from this book; Ackerman went way beyond the demonstration that crows are clever, she dug deeply into how and why different bird species are intelligent in different ways, and showed the connections between controversies about human intelligence and animal intelligence (without ever getting boring-/ perhaps an advantage of being a scientifically literate English major and journalist rather than a scientist whose writing skills have been dulled by writing jargon-filled prose for research journals). The book inspired me to want to dust off my binoculars and to schedule a trip to Costa Rica see some of these brilliant creatures in the wild. I will likely read it again. Review: Man Knows Nothing - Birds are as common as grass but most humans give them no more consideration than the grass under their feet! Man always puts his species at the top of the heap when it comes to intelligence but few ever stop to think that a lot of species evolved on parallel paths with humans. When I was about ten years old, I visited some my grand mothers relatives, in a fairly remote area, near Jackson, Tennessee. One of grannies sisters had a crow. This crow was very special in that it was stealing her eggs. She knew the crow was stealing the eggs but could never catch it red handed. One day shortly before we arrived, the sister heard a hen start cackling had looked out the window just in time to see the grow carrying an egg shell out of the hen house. She watched it carry the shell around the hen house but could not determine where the crow deposited the egg shell. Finally she found an old wash tub turned upside down with a hole in the bottom. She turned the tub over and found dozens of egg shells! The crow was dropping the shells in the hole in the tub. She was going to dispatch the crow but my brother and I talked her into giving the crow to us. We returned to North Little Rock, Arkansas with the crow. We kept it in a rabbit hutch for a few years and really enjoyed it. The crow took a bath every day year round rain or shine and cold or hot. I saw the feathers on the crow frozen together several times. We feed it wieners, black berries, and table scraps. My dad decided that his boys might do better on a farm. He bought fifty acres near Cabot and started raising strawberries and about fives acres of cotton. My dad had a "real job" working for Delta Airlines in Little Rock and commuted daily from the farm. We took the crow with us to the farm and finally let him loose but he never really left! He would sit in the top of a large tree in the back yard and always seemed to be near. On day the neighbor "across the road" came over and told my dad that if he didn't keep that damned crow at home he was going to shoot it. About two weeks later the crow came up missing! We didn't have chickens at that time but the crow remembered "after several years" what a cackling chicken meant! I would have had a hard time time believing some of the things described in this book about the Genius Of Birds had I not had this personal experience with our crow. I found the book fascinating, enlightening, and very timely. Our world is racing toward who knows "what" and all of the earths creatures will have difficulty adapting to the "progress" of such rapid changes in their environment! I am almost seventy five now and birds have always been a fascination of mine. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #38,553 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #22 in Environmentalist & Naturalist Biographies #48 in Bird Watching (Books) #75 in Biology (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,981 Reviews | ## Images ![The Genius of Birds - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815fMQDaXNL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scientific writing at its best *by D***K on November 20, 2025* I have been a birdwatcher for a couple of decades, and have done research on human behavior in evolutionary and comparative context. But I was positively awed by what I learned from this book; Ackerman went way beyond the demonstration that crows are clever, she dug deeply into how and why different bird species are intelligent in different ways, and showed the connections between controversies about human intelligence and animal intelligence (without ever getting boring-/ perhaps an advantage of being a scientifically literate English major and journalist rather than a scientist whose writing skills have been dulled by writing jargon-filled prose for research journals). The book inspired me to want to dust off my binoculars and to schedule a trip to Costa Rica see some of these brilliant creatures in the wild. I will likely read it again. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Man Knows Nothing *by P***R on September 8, 2016* Birds are as common as grass but most humans give them no more consideration than the grass under their feet! Man always puts his species at the top of the heap when it comes to intelligence but few ever stop to think that a lot of species evolved on parallel paths with humans. When I was about ten years old, I visited some my grand mothers relatives, in a fairly remote area, near Jackson, Tennessee. One of grannies sisters had a crow. This crow was very special in that it was stealing her eggs. She knew the crow was stealing the eggs but could never catch it red handed. One day shortly before we arrived, the sister heard a hen start cackling had looked out the window just in time to see the grow carrying an egg shell out of the hen house. She watched it carry the shell around the hen house but could not determine where the crow deposited the egg shell. Finally she found an old wash tub turned upside down with a hole in the bottom. She turned the tub over and found dozens of egg shells! The crow was dropping the shells in the hole in the tub. She was going to dispatch the crow but my brother and I talked her into giving the crow to us. We returned to North Little Rock, Arkansas with the crow. We kept it in a rabbit hutch for a few years and really enjoyed it. The crow took a bath every day year round rain or shine and cold or hot. I saw the feathers on the crow frozen together several times. We feed it wieners, black berries, and table scraps. My dad decided that his boys might do better on a farm. He bought fifty acres near Cabot and started raising strawberries and about fives acres of cotton. My dad had a "real job" working for Delta Airlines in Little Rock and commuted daily from the farm. We took the crow with us to the farm and finally let him loose but he never really left! He would sit in the top of a large tree in the back yard and always seemed to be near. On day the neighbor "across the road" came over and told my dad that if he didn't keep that damned crow at home he was going to shoot it. About two weeks later the crow came up missing! We didn't have chickens at that time but the crow remembered "after several years" what a cackling chicken meant! I would have had a hard time time believing some of the things described in this book about the Genius Of Birds had I not had this personal experience with our crow. I found the book fascinating, enlightening, and very timely. Our world is racing toward who knows "what" and all of the earths creatures will have difficulty adapting to the "progress" of such rapid changes in their environment! I am almost seventy five now and birds have always been a fascination of mine. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Birdbrain” should no longer be considered an insult! *by C***R on January 3, 2022* Both the book’s catchy title and the actual text go a long way in challenging a long-standing paradigm and assumptions about birds’ supposed lack on intelligence. Regarding that paradigm, I remember back when I was a wee-bitty kid in the early 1980s, I had a set of World Book Encyclopaedias from circa 1947, and of the articles therein ranked The 10 Most Intelligent Animals in the World. The chimpanzee topped the list, followed by several other primates, the cat and dog, the pig, the elephant, and the horse rounding out the bottom of the list. Regarding “talking” birds like parrots, cockatoos, mynahs, etc, the article stated that that while these speaking abilities may seem at first to indicate intelligence, the author(s) went on to dismiss this avian skill as mere mimicry, asserting that “their intelligence is far less than [the mammals listed in the Top 10].” Hmmm, I wonder what the author(s) of that World Book article would say about “The Genius of Birds” if they were still alive today. This book is chockfull of fascinating facts, figures, anecdotes, and hypotheses. Indeed, one of the reasons it took me so goshdarn long to finally finish reading it was that I could hardly go 1 or 2 pages without feeling compelled to highlight an eye-opening passage and add Comments for my Goodreads Notes & Highlights. As much as I liked this book, I felt compelled to downgrade it from a perfect 5 stars down to 4 when, in the final chapter, the author just had to go on a political gloom & doom soapbox about global warming/climate change. Oh well, still a very good read overall. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Genius of Birds - The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think - What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/41165512-the-genius-of-birds](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/41165512-the-genius-of-birds) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-06-06*