Bird Minds : Cognition and Behaviour of Australian Native Birds by Gisela Kaplan - 2016

Melbourne, Vic : CSIRO Publishing, 2016. Reprinted with Corrections. Softcover. Very Good Condition. Quarto. Binding is tight, cover and spine fully intact Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting No foxing in this copy Edges all neat and clean Card corners are slightly bumped In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cognitive abilities, suggesting plausible reasons for their appearance in Australian birds.Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of… Read More

CSIRO Publishing, 2015. Paperback. New. Bird Minds provides a fresh view of the behavior of Australian native avifauna, presenting a portrait of cognitive well-equipped species, which is somewhat removed from the traditional image of birds as fluttering, colorful ornaments that tend to move like automata. The book will focus on the specific abilities of Australian birds, examining why they have had to find largely cognitive ways of adapting to difficult conditions. The demands of the Australian environment have led to the development of cognitively complex processes that are unique in the world, including complex behaviors such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels.

Csiro, 2015. Paperback. New. 268 pages. 9.25x6.50x0.75 inches.