Explore the Fascinating World of Corvid Intelligence: Gifts of the Crow - How Crows Display Human-Like Perception, Emotion, and Thought

Christina: This book was recommended by a friend. The author does a great job with revealing crows sophisticated nature.

United States on Jul 07, 2023

Amazon Customer: I bought this book for myself but everyone keeps grabbing it. It keeps disappearing. It's fascinating, interesting and intriguing.

United States on Jun 26, 2023

Janis Taylor-Lee: Wording is quite technical but makes you think.

Canada on May 22, 2023

ALESSANDRA: Un libro di elevato interesse frutto di uno studio di anni fatto dall'autore. Particolarmente dettagliate e approfondite le analisi di come ogni singola azione dei corvidi, apparentemente più tipica degli esseri umani che degli uccelli, sia riconducibile ad uno specifico processo mentale. Il libro comunque non è ostico ma accessibilissimo e affascinante, corredato da disegni molto ben fatti e raccontato con ammirazione e affetto per questi incredibili uccelli. Le esperienze vissute dall'autore e da tante altre persone, insieme alla solida base scientifica, lasciano alla fine soddisfatti perché il libro consente di imparare cose sorprendenti e inimmaginabili fino a qualche tempo fa, che non lasciano dubbi sulla grandezza della Natura per la quale incutono uno sconfinato rispetto.

Italy on Apr 06, 2023

C. Craft: I have always love crows. This book makes me appreciate them that much more.

Canada on Sep 16, 2022

Jane Paffey: A fantastic book, packed full of technical information and personal anecdotes with regard to this most complex and social group of birds. I really enjoyed reading about the antics of both wild and domesticated corvids, and the book is balanced between academic research into corvid biology, and real-life examples of interesting and often amusing behaviour; for example, the propensity of Ravens to pull the tails of other birds or animals, and an account of crows sliding down a slippery slope for the sheer joy of it. The mix of academic findings and personal accounts of individual bird behaviour makes the book an extremely informative and entertaining read.

The seemingly human-like behaviours and emotional responses shown by members of the crow family are astutely observed and explored in detail, with a number of illustrations bringing these anecdotes to life. The question of whether corvids do have an awareness of the thought processes of others is explored, including their understanding of human motives and possible intentions towards them.

Corvids are described playing, fighting, loving, hating, grieving, bearing a grudge, and displaying a whole range of emotional...

United Kingdom on Jul 17, 2016

Matt Szymczyk: Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell is a book proving that birds are a lot smarter than one may think. You may think that birds are just animals that live on this earth and strive for survival. Marzluff and Angell take the bird and prove to the readers that these magnificent animals are more than meets the eye and that with proper research and observation, a bird is actually an intelligent creature, just like us humans. Although this may seem bizarre and quite a bit farfetched, it is not since Marzluff is an expert on birds and their behavior through the years of study and research that he has conducted with birds. Along with his research, Marzluff has written and published many papers and books just like this one depicting the behavior of birds. Angell on the other hand, has less experience with research, but more experience in observing wildlife and transforming what he sees into works of art. Therefore, whether you think this book is accurate or completely false, I stand on the position that these authors are correct in the sense that birds do behave like humans mostly because the evidence is presented all throughout the book and how can you not believe something...

United States on Apr 26, 2013

H. A. Weedon: This is a carefully researched, very readable and superbly illustrated work. There are ten chapters: 1 - Amazing Feats and Deep Connections. 2 - Birdbrains Nevermore. 3 - Language. 4 - Delinquency. 5 - Insight. 6 - Frolic. 7 - Passion, Wrath and Grief. 8 - Risk Taking. 9 - Awareness. 10 - Reconsidering the Crow. There's an illustrated appendix, divided into ten parts, that explains the anatomy and physiology of the crow-brain, and there are extensive source notes and references followed by a helpful index.

Examples of intelligence are given relating to several species in the crow family including Caledonian crows, carrion crows, jackdaws, jays, magpies, ravens and rooks, and birds from a variety of countries, including Canada, England, Indonesia and the US, are involved. Care is taken to analyse the scientific findings to establish the precise kind of learning that has taken place in the minds of these various crow family members. The conclusion is that they are capable of following reasoning patterns similar to the basics underlying similar functions found in the human mind.

Making everything even more interesting is the fact that the evolutionary route taken in the...

United Kingdom on Dec 22, 2012

David Keymer: BIRKHEAD, Tim. Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird. Walker. 2012. 266 + xxii p, illus., bibliog., index. $25.

MARZLUFF, John, and ANGELL, Tony. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans. Free Press. 2012. 289 + xiv p., illus., bibliog., index. $25.

HERZOG, Hal. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals. HarperCollins. 2010. 226 + viii p. $25.99.

Good science writing is hard to beat. It's crisp, provides you with new insights into the physical world, and if the writer is good, opens up new worlds to you.

Two of these three books -by Birkhead and Marzluff and Angell-- satisfy me on this level. The third -by Herzog-- does not.
The two books on birds were part of a larger packet of books I bought from Amazon to satisfy my curiosity about these animals I can't ignore but know little about. I had read one book by Berndt Heinrich, a brilliant animal ethologist, on ravens so I bought three more (one on ravens, one -a classic--on bumblebees, and one autobiographical), which I have yet to read. These two books got caught up in the web of that buying...

United States on Oct 13, 2012