The Genius of Birds

by Jennifer Ackerman

necessarily dovetail. A bird can be smart spatially without being gifted in social problem solving. In this view, the brain is seen as a bundle of different specialized processors,

and was assembled gradually, piece by piece, over 100 million years of steady evolution.” It’s easy to catch the reptilian in birds. You can see it in their beady eyes and quick darting movements; in the pterodactyl-like wings of a rhinoceros hornbill; in a robin holding up his head in frozen alertness to catch a sound, his expressionless face remindful of a lizard’s; or in a great blue heron—the slow heavy wing beat, the snaky finesse

around with quick twists of the head. It misses little.