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.

'Jennifer Ackerman knows what she's talking about... Her knack for catching the personalities of different species in gorgeous, playful prose further collapses comfortable barriers between the human and the birdlike' Daily Telegraph

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.

Recent scientific findings have upended the traditional view of how birds live, how they communicate, forage, court, and survive. Abilities we once considered uniquely our own, such as deception, manipulation, kidnapping, collaboration, and play, have been revealed as the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, and a bird's propensity for competitiveness, theft, dancing, creativity, violence, and selflessness presents biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of - well - birdness.

Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behaviour, birds vary. It's what we love about them.

'[Ackerman's] exhilarating book will leave you as awestruck by the complexities and contradictions of bird life' San Francisco Chronicle

'Like a bowerbird, Ms. Ackerman gathers and displays treasures to amaze and delight'
Wall Street Journal

A SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR

It's flight and egg and feathers and song. It's the demure plumage of a mountain thornbill and the extravagant tail feathers of an Indian paradise flycatcher, the solo song of a superb lyrebird and the perfectly timed duets of canebrake wrens, an osprey's hurtling dive toward the sea, and a long-legged heron's still, patient eyeing of the dark water.

There is no single bird way of being.

Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, Jennifer Ackerman playfully explores our dramatically shifting understanding of these magnificent animals.

'Jennifer Ackerman knows what she's talking about...Her knack for catching the personalities of different species in gorgeous, playful prose further collapses comfortable barriers between the human and the birdlike' Daily Telegraph

'The real joy of [this] book is its close attention to some of the specialists of the region... Ackerman is alive to the humour at play in field research ' Mark Cocker, Spectator