Jennifer Ackerman

Jennifer Ackerman reports on science and nature with a particular focus on animal behavior and cognition. The Bird Way draws on field observations and recent research to examine how birds communicate, cooperate, play, parent, solve problems, and adapt their behavior. The book appeared from Penguin Press in 2020 and became a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Ackerman has written about science for more than three decades, with articles and essays appearing in National Geographic, Scientific American, and The New York Times Magazine. Her related books include The Genius of Birds, Birds by the Shore, Chance in the House of Fate, and What an Owl Knows. Rather than treating bird intelligence as a single hierarchy, The Bird Way emphasizes variation among species and individuals. Ackerman combines research interviews, travel, and close description to show how new findings can overturn familiar assumptions about animal minds.