--- product_id: 194423915 title: "The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think" price: "33404CFA" currency: XOF in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sn/products/194423915-the-bird-way-a-new-look-at-how-birds-talk store_origin: SN region: Senegal --- # The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think **Price:** 33404CFA **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think - **How much does it cost?** 33404CFA with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sn](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/194423915-the-bird-way-a-new-look-at-how-birds-talk) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description 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. Review: Superb Nature Writing - This is nature writing at its very best. Journalist Jennifer Ackerman has emerged as one of the leading voices for our avian friends. She travels the world to introduce us to some amazing birds and the painstaking research being done to better understand them. I lost count of the number of times I wrote “wow” in my marginalia. North American birds are on the whole somewhat boring, but in Australia, New Zealand and the tropics, their behavior is even more distinctive than their often colorful plumage. From laughing and tool making to cooperative parenting, birds have more going on upstairs than I ever imagined. I also thought I had learned about the birds and the bees long ago, but I don’t remember studying their “cloaca” (a three-in-one orifice). Perhaps I will develop the patience to go bird watching when I am in my 70s, but in the meantime, I have put out feeders and birdbaths. Two of our most frequent flyers are acorn woodpeckers, which have “one of the most complex communal nesting systems of any vertebrate” (p. 319) and Anna’s hummingbirds, which Ackerman wonderfully describes as “a ton of truculence packed into a feathered fraction of an ounce” (p. 13). While reading outside they can hover inches from my face. Males have dazzling ruby red throats when light is reflected at certain angles. Feeding frenzies are punctuated by dogfights and dive bombings. Just as I was reading Ackerman’s description, a female hummer crashed into the sliding glass door of my study. I scooped her up and marveled at how tiny she was. Before I could offer her some sugar water, she had flown off into our nearby redbud tree. “The Bird Way” is a welcome respite from a world turned upside down by Trump’s kakocracy (rule by the worst people). Corvids (crows) over Covid-19! My next bird books will be the lighter “The Birds of Pandemonium: Life Among the Exotic and the Endangered” and the more academic “Parrots of the Wild: A Natural History of the World’s Most Captivating Birds.” Ackerman has a brilliant chapter on New Zealand’s stupendous kea parrot, but I need to better understand the yellow-naped desertcart I grew up with. Poncho could outlive me... Review: A well-written, informative book. - Ever wonder how, with their relatively tiny brains, birds can learn, communicate and function at a much higher level than one would predict. Turns out, their brains are organized differently - and clearly much more efficiently. From this book, you'll learn about the amazing ways birds avoid nest parasitism (e.g., a cuckoo dumping its own egg into a nest, and when its offspring hatches, it pushes the rightful occupants out of the next to die). Some birds teach their unhatched "children" a code song, learned while still in the egg, without which they won't be fed. Others memorize the speckled pattern of their own eggs and will discard any with unrecognized patterns. Still others keep careful count of how many eggs were laid and will abandon the nest if an "extra" appears. Perceptual and learning abilities rival and often surpass those of primates whose brains weigh more than the whole bird. African grey parrots have the cognitive and emotional facilities of preschoolers. A worthy and fascinating read. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #493,132 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #16 in Ornithology (Books) #79 in Bird Watching (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,701 Reviews | ## Images ![The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mq0ie7uYL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Superb Nature Writing *by P***K on July 20, 2020* This is nature writing at its very best. Journalist Jennifer Ackerman has emerged as one of the leading voices for our avian friends. She travels the world to introduce us to some amazing birds and the painstaking research being done to better understand them. I lost count of the number of times I wrote “wow” in my marginalia. North American birds are on the whole somewhat boring, but in Australia, New Zealand and the tropics, their behavior is even more distinctive than their often colorful plumage. From laughing and tool making to cooperative parenting, birds have more going on upstairs than I ever imagined. I also thought I had learned about the birds and the bees long ago, but I don’t remember studying their “cloaca” (a three-in-one orifice). Perhaps I will develop the patience to go bird watching when I am in my 70s, but in the meantime, I have put out feeders and birdbaths. Two of our most frequent flyers are acorn woodpeckers, which have “one of the most complex communal nesting systems of any vertebrate” (p. 319) and Anna’s hummingbirds, which Ackerman wonderfully describes as “a ton of truculence packed into a feathered fraction of an ounce” (p. 13). While reading outside they can hover inches from my face. Males have dazzling ruby red throats when light is reflected at certain angles. Feeding frenzies are punctuated by dogfights and dive bombings. Just as I was reading Ackerman’s description, a female hummer crashed into the sliding glass door of my study. I scooped her up and marveled at how tiny she was. Before I could offer her some sugar water, she had flown off into our nearby redbud tree. “The Bird Way” is a welcome respite from a world turned upside down by Trump’s kakocracy (rule by the worst people). Corvids (crows) over Covid-19! My next bird books will be the lighter “The Birds of Pandemonium: Life Among the Exotic and the Endangered” and the more academic “Parrots of the Wild: A Natural History of the World’s Most Captivating Birds.” Ackerman has a brilliant chapter on New Zealand’s stupendous kea parrot, but I need to better understand the yellow-naped Amazon I grew up with. Poncho could outlive me... ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A well-written, informative book. *by A***P on June 21, 2020* Ever wonder how, with their relatively tiny brains, birds can learn, communicate and function at a much higher level than one would predict. Turns out, their brains are organized differently - and clearly much more efficiently. From this book, you'll learn about the amazing ways birds avoid nest parasitism (e.g., a cuckoo dumping its own egg into a nest, and when its offspring hatches, it pushes the rightful occupants out of the next to die). Some birds teach their unhatched "children" a code song, learned while still in the egg, without which they won't be fed. Others memorize the speckled pattern of their own eggs and will discard any with unrecognized patterns. Still others keep careful count of how many eggs were laid and will abandon the nest if an "extra" appears. Perceptual and learning abilities rival and often surpass those of primates whose brains weigh more than the whole bird. African grey parrots have the cognitive and emotional facilities of preschoolers. A worthy and fascinating read. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ well done, but… *by C***D on November 6, 2025* Long, detailed, no photos, but well documented and interesting and I did learn a lot I didn’t know. Stick with it and you’ll learn a lot and enjoy. Just wish it had been shorter and included some photos. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think - What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds - The Genius of Birds --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sn/products/194423915-the-bird-way-a-new-look-at-how-birds-talk](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/194423915-the-bird-way-a-new-look-at-how-birds-talk) --- *Product available on Desertcart Senegal* *Store origin: SN* *Last updated: 2026-06-01*