Gifts Of The Crow: How Perception, Emotion, And Thought Allow Smart Birds To Behave Like Humans (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Fascinating book. Marzluff is a professor at University of Washington and has spent years researching crows, ravens, and other corvids. His collected anecdotes of crow and raven behavior are bolstered by research into the physical "why this happens". Some of the scientific explanations went a little too deep for me, but they were interesting nonetheless. I had seen Marzluff's "A Murder of Crows" on "Nature" on PBS, and was delighted to find this book and get into the subject in a little more depth. You won't view crows and ravens in the same way after reading this book. “I thought you might find this interesting,” was the comment my librarian wife made as she plunked the book on our kitchen table. It was certainly a book I might not have picked for myself, but ever since I’d acquired a mystical relationship with crows (I refer to them as “my brothers”) I’ve gained a reputation for being able to call them in due to my skill at imitating their calls. One time in Wisconsin I was able to lure in several outside a restaurant and they swarmed noisily overhead in response to my calls. This book confirmed my suspicions about crows…members of a group ornithologists call Corvids, which includes Ravens and Jays.The authors have blended reputedly true stories of crow behavior with hard scientific facts about the animal’s brain and its complex functions. For me, the entertaining stories about human interactions with crows were the most interesting portions of the book. However, for those with a scientific bent, the diagrams of the bird’s brain and descriptions of its utility in making Corvids nearly on an intellectual par with the greater apes must be equally fascinating. My recommendation for this book? Try it, you might like it.
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The best crow book, and by local people too.
—The_Reader
