July Read: Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
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Let me start this by stating emphatically that birds are not my thing.
Growing up, my grandmother loved birds. She had bird sweatshirts (I still have one), bird mugs (fond memories of the tea she made me when I was sick stem from these fancy tall mugs with their bird paintings on them) bird feeders, and basically was what I think most would call a bird lover.
I never understood it growing up. To me, birds were something you pointed out when you saw a colorful one. Cracked jokes about stumbling upon a murder, and sending a picture of crows to your friends. They also were seagulls that you had to protect your French fries from on the Ocean City (NJ) boardwalk. They were never something I gave more than a passing thought to. I barely understood it until recent years, but I definitely didn’t understand it until I read this book.
<a href="http://Gifts of the Crow” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans is something that I will admit can come across as frustrating as some of the science is at a level that I personally didn’t understand—the processes of the brain that were discussed, and the parts of the brain, while fascinating, went over my head.
I’m sure to those that understand these concepts, chemicals, and their pathways it enhanced the reading of this novel and illustrated points that I didn’t follow. I’d like to take a moment to point out that I’m not a neuroscientist and my biology recollection basically comes down to the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell. My anatomy level can be summarized by the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes. Biology was not my strong suit, and the chemistry of the brain is not something I’m familiar with, so take my note about this with a grain of salt.
That discomfort aside, I enjoyed the lens through which we learned about the birds, the qualitative data that was collected, and the process of how they decided which hypotheses most likely worked. It was written in a way that allowed for the layman (or the non-biology/non-neuroscience amongst us) to understand. This book is a good read in the event that you ever wonder, how sentient are animals? Are there animals that plan? Can they think ahead? Is there a reason that bird is giving me a dirty look? If you’ve ever wondered why birds (crows and other corvids in particular) do what they do, or seem as quirky as they are, this book is definitely something to consider. Also, it’s only 206 pages of actual reading.
Lastly, I have to say that I am looking forward to trying to coax some crows to visit and establish a nest in my yard. They seem like the kind of neighbors that make you smile, sigh, and laugh out loud when you’re not on their bad side.
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Plus, join us next time for Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Discussion on Tuesday, August 8. Get the details.
