July Read: Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans

By Kathleen McLaughlin, Ed.D. | July 25, 2023

BioBuzz has been connecting the life science workforce since 2009. We’ve built an expansive community in the Mid-Atlantic with a national readership that spans from Massachusettes to Florida, and New York to California. For our next chapter, we’re building a proprietary talent logistics model to help employers source and hire life science talent. Learn more.

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. 

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.

Let us know what you think – follow BioBuzz on LinkedIn to share your thoughts!

Plus, join us next time for Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Discussion on Tuesday, August 8. Get the details.