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Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays | 
 enlarge | Author: Candace Savage
Publisher: Sierra Club Books
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy Used: $9.95
You Save: $12.00 (55%)
New (22) Used (22) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 242530
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 9.9 x 0.4
ISBN: 0871569566
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.864
EAN: 9780871569561
Publication Date: June 2, 1997
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Now in paperback! Examines the lives and behaviors of the highly intelligent members of the crow family, corvids, and includes 61 dramatic images from the world's top nature photographers.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Anti-research bias is a red flag August 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book has a number of positives: beautiful pictures and some interesting presentations of scientific studies.
It has a major flaw: the author has an anti-science bias. Despite relying on science for just about every detail of the book, she constantly makes snide remarks about how limited it is and doesn't really know things.
If science is that stupid, why is she using it for most of the content of her book?
It also serves as a red flag. While much of the presentation of material is accurate, the author often twists details to fit her notions about science, gender(when a girl bird does something, it shows intelligence; when a boy bird does the same or nearly the same thing it is instinct or aggression), and romanticized nature (nature tends to be peaceful save for humans). This leaves the reader with the burden of sorting fact from the author's wishful thinking.
NEXT TIME I SEE A CROW, I'M GONNA RUN! May 31, 2008
When I got this book last week, I was initially somewhat disappointed. I had expected something more humorous or absurd. I mean, a "coffee table book" about CROWS?! Sounds like the ultimate dada, LOL! When I looked through the book, I also instantly saw a major whooper: the author (or perhaps her editor - the error is in the photo captions) claim that Hooded Crows are black and...wait for it...WHITE.
WHAT?????
I live in Sweden, where there are Hooded Crows everywhere, and I can assure you that they are, of course, black and grey. And yes, you can check a standard, scientific reference work at your university library, unless you don't believe me. :-D
Be that as it may, when I actually started reading the book, I realized that the rest of it isn't that bad, after all. As another reviewer pointed out: it depends on what exactly you are looking for. It's not a field guide to crows and their allies, nor is it a original scientific study. Rather, "Bird Brains" is a popularized introduction to the subject of crows and their intelligence, intended for the general reader. The author, Candance Savage, is a Canadian author and nature-lover (and yes, crow-lover!). The book is lavishly illustrated with photos of crows, ravens, jays, jackdaws and magpies. All photos are in color. Some are quite dramatic, for instance a photo of a crow challenging a Bald Eagle, and another showing magpies sitting on bisons, not to mention a photo of two magpies chasing a crow! (As you might have guessed, I'm a magpie-lover myself.) The text is pretty basic, but it's well-written and interesting. I think the book could be an excellent gift to both adults and teenagers, including people with only a passing interest in birds.
The main point of "Bird Brains" is that crows, ravens and other corvids are surprisingly intelligent creatures. In laboratory tests, ravens have showed abilities on the level of chimpanzees, and above the level of monkeys. One raven could count to six, another learned how to fill a small cup with water and moisturize his food, simply by observing a laboratory assistant. The raven wasn't specifically trained to perform this task - he learned it anyway. Both ravens and crows can mimick human speech, just like parrots or mynabirds, and the most humorous situation in the book involves a crow that could say "Three, two, one" and then mimick the sound of an explosion. Apparently, the crow had spent some quality time near a building site.
The most spooky situation mentioned in the book involved a raven that learned to say "Come" and somehow taught another raven to join him every time he uttered the command! The ravens lived in a laboratory, and were mimicking their trainer. Flexible instincts? Real intelligence? A little bit of both? A short work like this cannot answer the question, just pose it. One thing is certain: if a corvid would start talking to me outside the local shopping mould, I would start running!
On a more sober note, "Bird Brains" also mentions situations where corvids don't act very intelligently, where they are indeed driven by pure instinct. For instance, crows and their relatives don't recognize their own chicks, but automatically feeds whatever happens to be in the nest (something not mentioned in the book is that this dumbness is taken advantage of by cuckoos - at least one species of cuckoo specializes in parasitizing corvids). Only when the chicks leave the nest do their parents start recognizing them, even in large flocks. Savage also mentions several instances of rank stupidity among the jackdaws studied by the famous Konrad Lorenz. Apparently, the jackdaws attacked poor Lorenz every time he held up a black object, thinking the object was a jackdaw in need of assistance!
Still, corvids (the quaint scientific term for crowbirds) are remarkably intelligent, and this book may wet your appetite for learning more about the intelligence of birds. Perhaps I'll order Irene Pepperberg's books about Alex next. It's about that other fascinating group of intelligent birds: parrots.
Four stars! (Yepp, I had to delete one star because of that Hooded Crow thing, no offense.)
 Watch The Birdie! November 10, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You will never look at these birds the same again - fansinating.
Delightful book August 30, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though it's not as long as I would like, the pictures are fabulous and the information is great. It's a must-read for anybody who likes corvids.
Was that Aunt Rose? July 23, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good part of my childhood was spent on an upstate New York farm. We had lots of corn and many other vegetables; many birds - and one extra-special crow. He quickly adopted us and often spoke to my uncle and me by name in my aunt's voice and exact intonations. The vegetable farm, barn, shop-garage, and chicken coop were at the top of a fairly steep hill and the house was at the bottom. Aunt Rose ruled the household; the crow ruled the farm area. Sometimes he would deliver small things up or down the hill. My uncle and I never tired of his antics and wisdom. We were happy to do the work orchestrated by the crow and I was ready for J. Allen Boone's work years in advance.
Bird Brains may not be the most scientific or even accurate book, but I bring it out any time I find a potentially interested visitor. Even now where I live in a fairly rural area of New York City - there are crows among my friends. They live in close quarters with several Cardinal families, near blue jays, and many smaller birds in a huge oak tree and smaller peripheral trees. Crows are gregarious and adjustable. They would no doubt be pleased with this book and see no reason to find fault.
If the book were about humans, would be as picky as we are about crows being correctly represented? Do we expect all humans to be alike? Equally smart with similar talents?
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