Publisher Description

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. Kaplan 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 Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Kaplan's well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour.

Author Biography

Gisela Kaplan is Foundation Professor and Head of the School of Social Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. She grew up in West Berlin but gained her Ph.D. at Monash University, Melborne. She has lectured widely in Australia, Europe and the USA where she recently held a Visiting Professorship of Sociology at Memphis State University. She is the co-editor of "Hannah Arendt: Thinking, Judging, Freedom".

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface

1 Australian conditions and their consequences
2 Brain size, long life and resourcefulness
3 Foragers, food-switchers and innovators
4 Tool use
5 Nest and bower builders
6 Play behaviour
7 Mimicry and imitation – the cognitive dimensions
8 Social and vocal learning
9 Emotions, communication and cognition
10 Communicating intentionally
11 Abstract concepts and states of mind
12 Which native birds are smart?

Epilogue
Glossary
References
Appendices
Index

Review

The book covers with competence the most traditional topics of avian intelligence, including nest building, mimicry, tool use, imitation, play, social and vocal learning but also more neglected topics, such as brain and behavioural asymmetries. [...] Overall, the book provides a scholarly but also very enjoyable reading on the intelligence of birds, and should thus be a recommended reading even to non-specialists."
- Giorgio Vallortigara, Centre for Mind and Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Italy

Long Description

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. Kaplan 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 Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Kaplan's well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour.

Description for Bookstore

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.

Details