The Genius of Birds

In The Genius of Birds Jennifer Ackerman explores just that.  The book takes a look at the many extraordinary mental feats of birds from having an enormous repertoire of songs, to remembering where up to 30,000 seeds have been cached over many square miles, to constructing elaborate nests, to using & passing on tools, to precisely navigating thousands of miles.  As she looks at the many ways that birds use their brains she explains what the science is telling us about what these talents mean with respect to birds and overall intelligence.

This is a fascinating book.  Bird lovers will definitely want to pick it up and anyone interested in the question of non-human intelligence will also want to take a look.  I recommend it.