"What kind of intelligence allows a bird to anticipate the arrival of a distant storm? Or find its way to a place it has never been before, though it may be thousands of miles away? Or precisely imitate the complex songs of hundreds of other species? Or hide tens of thousands of seeds over hundreds of square miles and remember where it put them six months later?"
Jennifer Ackerman is an author, who has been writing about science and nature for 30 years. Jennifer has authored eight books, including Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body, Birds by the Shore and The Genius of Birds: The Intelligent Life of Birds, which was a New York Times Bestseller, as well as winning Best Book of the Year from the Spectator and the National Post. The Genius of Birds sees Jennifer drawing on her extensive research and expertise to tell the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds, and investigating new research that is changing the way we view intelligence.
Her most recent book, The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think examines the unique cognitive abilities of bird brains, which, while radically different from mammal brains, seem to be just as capable at generating intelligence. Published this year, The Bird Way has been called “An enthralling study of the avian world” by the Guardian and has been picked as one of "The Best Summer Science Books of 2020" by NPR's Science Friday.
Jennifer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an NEA Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
"Like a bowerbird, Ms. Ackerman gathers and displays treasures to amaze and delight—then lets the scientists’ stories take center stage." - Wall Street Journal