Jennifer Ackerman

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. "There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries -- What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species--ours--but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call--and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska's Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think

The Bird Way

"Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how it came about."--

The Genius of Birds

An instant New York Times bestseller! From the author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Though our fascination goes back centuries, scientists have only recently begun to understand in deep detail the complex nature of these extraordinary birds. Some two hundred sixty species of owls exist today, and they reside on every continent except Antarctica, but they are far more difficult to find and study than other birds because they are cryptic, camouflaged, and mostly active in the dark of night. Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior. She joins scientists in the field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their young, and move about from season to season. We now know that the hoots, squawks, and chitters of owls follow sophisticated and complex rules, allowing them to express not just their needs and desires but their individuality and identity. Owls duet. They migrate. They hoard their prey. Some live in underground burrows; some roost in large groups; some dine on black widows and scorpions. Ackerman brings this research alive with her own personal field observations about owls and dives deep into why these birds beguile us. What an Owl Knows is an awe-inspiring exploration of owls across the globe and through human history, and a spellbinding account of their astonishing hunting skills, communication, and sensory prowess. By providing extraordinary new insights into the science of owls, What an Owl Knows pulls back the curtain on the nature of the world’s most enigmatic group of birds.

The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds

What an Owl Knows

The Genius of Birds / Other Minds The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life / The Hidden Life of Trees

a day in the life of your body

Sex sleep eat drink dream

يوم من الحياة في جسمك

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Geniul păsărilor

Genius of Birds

Por muito tempo, a expressão "cérebro de passarinho" se referiu de maneira pejorativa a mentes pouco aptas, como se a pequena dimensão da cabeça de alguns pássaros resultasse em uma metáfora perfeita para um menor grau de esperteza. Costumava-se enxergar as aves como animais de inteligência pouco refinada, com corpos e esqueletos mais desenvolvidos para o voo e a leveza. No entanto, A inteligência das aves surge para quebrar esse paradigma, abrindo o leque do comportamento animal e dos estudos científicos que demonstram sem dúvidas a genialidade desses animais. Numa mistura de dados científicos e relatos entusiasmados de observadores e admiradores de aves, Jennifer Ackerman apresenta as mais variadas espécies, desde as comuns, mais próximas do ambiente urbano — como as que sobrevoam o globo em direção aos confins dos polos ou nos deixam presentes na janela em troca de migalhas de pão —, até as mais extraordinárias e remotas à vivência humana. Por meio da observação detida que faz e do vasto repertório de estudos cruzados que emprega, A inteligência das aves nos guia em uma redescoberta do mundo animal, aquele no qual a inteligência humana apenas faz par evolutivo com a inteligência das aves. Sejam dodôs, tentilhões, pombos ou papagaios e pardais, os pássaros têm habilidades surpreendentes: noção de tempo, reconhecimento de passado e futuro, manejo e criação de ferramentas, senso de direção, memória de longa duração e capacidade de aprender novos comportamentos por observação social. Tal como os humanos, adquirem novas línguas por meio do aprendizado, transformam seus cantos, apresentam sotaques e evoluem em diversas direções cognitivas já há mais de 150 milhões de anos. Não à toa estão em todos os lugares do planeta: sua inteligência desenvolve estratégias de sobrevivência a cada dia. Neste livro, Ackerman celebra os vários cientistas e amantes do mundo animal que puderam identificar tais comportamentos, mas vai além: insufla de entusiasmo aqueles que percorrem suas páginas repletas de informações de campo e anedotas curiosas sobre a vida dos pássaros, que talvez seja mais próxima da vida dos humanos do que poderíamos supor.

A Inteligência Das Aves

Miriam Nelson

This practical and interactive guide shows women how to optimize their potential for health and well-being through in-depth information, self-assessment quizzes, and checklists to determine individual risk factors for common ailments and more serious diseases. Dr. Miriam Nelson shares the preventative measures that can be taken now to avoid such health problems down the road. From sexual and reproductive health to beauty, heart health, emotional well-being, bone and muscle health, and weight control, The Strong Women's Guide to Total Health offers a complete picture of the broad spectrum of issues that impact overall health. It is essential reading for women of all ages.

The Strong Women's Guide to Total Health

From the bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, the revised and reissued edition of her beloved book of essays describing her forays along the Delaware shore For three years, Jennifer Ackerman lived in the small coastal town of Lewes, Delaware, in the sort of blue-water, white-sand landscape that draws summer crowds up and down the eastern seaboard. Birds by the Shore is a book about discovering the natural life at the ocean's edge: the habits of shorebirds and seabirds, the movement of sand and water, the wealth of creatures that survive amid storm and surf. Against this landscape's rhythms, Ackerman revisits her own history--her mother's death, her father's illness and her hopes to have children of her own. This portrait of life at the ocean's edge will be relished by anyone who has walked a beach at sunset, or watched a hawk hover over a winter marsh, and felt part of the natural world. With a quiet passion and friendly, generous intelligence, it explores the way that landscape shapes our thoughts and perceptions and shows that home ground is often where we feel the deepest response to the planet.

Observing the Natural Life of the Atlantic Coast

Birds by the Shore

A portrait of the terrain and wildlife of Lewes, Delaware, interweaves personal reflection with descriptions of such local phenomena as ghost crabs, shore birds, sea worms, and whales. 17,500 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Notes from the Shore

Le génie des oiseaux

Some colds are like mice, timid and annoying; others like dragons, accompanied by body aches and deep misery. In AH-CHOO!, Jennifer Ackerman explains what, exactly, a cold is, how it works, and whether it's really possible to "fight one off." Scientists call this the Golden Age of the Common Cold because Americans suffer up to a billion colds each year, resulting in 40 million days of missed work and school and 100 million doctor visits. They've also learned over the past decade much more about what cold viruses are, what they do to the human body, and how symptoms can be addressed. In this ode to the odious cold, Ackerman sifts through the chatter about treatments-what works, what doesn't, and what can't hurt. She dispels myths, such as susceptibility to colds reflects a weakened immune system. And she tracks current research, including work at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, a world-renowned center of cold research studies, where the search for a cure continues.

The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold

Ah-Choo!

Karin Grosz

A portrait of the terrain and wildlife of Lewes, Delaware, interweaves personal reflection with descriptions of such local phenomema as ghost crabs, shore birds, sea worms, and whales

Follows a typical day in the life of the human body, from the early morning wakeup to the nighttime return to sleep, revealing the rhythmic cycles that control the body and demonstrating the importance of synchronizing one's actions to these biological rhythms.

A Day in the Life of Your Body

Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream

Examines the diverse ways in which human heredity is linked to the rest of the natural world and analyzes how the science of genetics affects everyday life.

Jennifer Ackerman

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