She investigates everything from the extraordinary memories of some species to the social structures of various large colonies. She travels the world collecting stories from researchers working on the ground breaking science of the intelligence of birds. However, I was not expecting the elegant and cutting-edge scientific guide which Ackerman constructed. So, when there was a book readily available which proved all my thoughts and theories and I could use it to win an argument about birds, well I had to purchase it. My partner does not believe all birds are geniuses. Parrots can mimic voices and sounds and then play dirty tricks. There are countless stories of various corvid species finding presents, like money, for the people who feed them frequently, or returning camera lens caps to familiar people who are nice to them.
I have spent hours watching them place bits of everything on the road and wait for cars to run over it to reveal if there is food inside. The books … The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman And so, here is a brief selection of the books which are informing my new hobby of armchair bird watching. I could have turned to picture books or beautifully photographed coffee table books on ornithology but I prefer narrative and informative books.
And yes, I could have resorted to watching any of the David Attenborough nature documentaries which feature birds or the Netflix series, Dancing with the Birds, my preference is always for books. Sometimes, little song birds who like to make their homes in roadside hedges, but mostly the birds I see are all the same no matter where I go.Īnd so, comes the birth of armchair birdwatching, which is facilitated by the game Wingspan but also by several interesting publications about birds which I have read over the last several months. I live in a city and I am an urban tourist and so most of the birds I see whenever I am out about in the world, whether locally or abroad, are pigeons, gulls, ducks, and corvids. Well, let’s be honest, I love all board games but this one holds a special place in my collection because I also love birds. The bird cards are lovingly detailed and contain interesting facts about each bird. Fortunately, the brilliant games designers at Stonemaier Games provided the answer through their Audubon Society recognized and award-winning board game, Wingspan. Recently, I started to wonder what else one could do from the comfort of the sitting room armed with very little knowledge. Now, I travel and have little need of the armchair knowledge I gathered in pursuit of the hobby. I looked at travel guides and magazines of far flung places and made lists of places I would love to visit. This is especially true now, in the age of the internet, where any location can be seen and experienced through stunning freely available photos and the new magic of virtual reality. I read it in the nineties, well beyond its initial transition to mass market paper back and film.
However, Anne Tyler’s 1985 Pulitzer nominated novel The Accidental Tourist, is where I first came into contact with the armchair expression. While I have always been familiar with the armchair quarterback, it has never been something I felt I had the knowledge or expertise to be. The idiom armchair quarterback means a person who believes his or her knowledge of a sport would enable him or her to make better decisions than the coaches or players involved.
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