Read The Thing with Feathers Online
Authors: Noah Strycker
bowerbirds
as artists,
209
–12,
220
bower design and construction,
205
–8,
214
,
216
–17
courtship ritual,
206
,
207
–8,
210
great bowerbird,
205
,
207
,
208
,
210
–12,
214
,
215
–16
intelligence,
218
–19
inventiveness and aesthetics,
209
–12,
214
–16
MacGregor’s bowerbird,
218
regent and satin bowerbirds,
206
Vogelkop bowerbird,
206
–7,
214
–16
“Bowerbirds, Art, and Aesthetics” (Endler),
209
brain function
abstract thought,
213
cognitive processing limit of seven items,
46
–47,
154
delayed gratification,
201
episodic memory,
200
–201
fear and fight-or-flight response,
118
–21
human neurons and memory storage,
178
–79
loss with age and disuse,
180
–81
love,
249
of mammals versus birds,
198
memory competitions and memory-palace technique,
169
–71,
175
–78,
179
–80
music and language processing,
130
,
137
–38,
140
–42
olfactory information processing,
18
–19
photomagnetic sensitivity,
17
–18
ratio of brain to body weight,
ix
–x
satisfaction in charitable giving,
241
,
242
self-recognition,
187
,
199
sound mimicry,
138
broad-tailed hummingbirds,
94
Brown, Steven,
142
buntings,
16
Cavagna, Andrea,
37
–38,
39
,
43
–48
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley,
110
,
116
chickadees,
78
,
181
chickens
abundance of,
147
aggression,
148
,
149
,
158
,
159
color vision and response to red,
159
commercial farming,
159
–61
egalitarian groups,
158
logic and intelligence,
154
social hierarchy,
147
–49
triangular relationships,
148
,
157
Chomsky, Noam,
141
–42
Clark’s grebes,
133
–34
Clark’s nutcrackers,
165
–66,
168
,
172
–74,
179
–80
Clive, Sophie Windsor,
29
club-winged manakins,
134
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
259
Conway, John,
32
–33
cooperative behavior
as common practice,
225
in complex societies,
237
–38
in differing circumstances,
236
–37
game theory and prisoner’s dilemma strategy,
228
–31
kin selection,
226
–28
long-tailed manakin courtship ritual,
134
self-interest,
233
–34,
240
–42
stability of population and,
232
,
237
strategic cooperative relationships,
231
–33
in unpredictable environment,
226
See also
fairy-wrens
Corning, Peter,
32
,
48
corvids,
192
,
218
.
See also
magpies; nutcrackers
courtship rituals
bowerbirds,
206
,
207
–8,
210
Clark’s grebes,
133
–34
dance as,
133
–35
humans,
141
,
154
,
213
–14
manakins,
133
–34
New Guinea birds of paradise,
133
song as,
141
superb fairy-wrens,
235
wandering albatrosses,
255
–56
whooping cranes,
133
critical systems,
47
–48
dance and music
co-evolution with language,
140
–42
as courtship display,
133
–35,
141
evolutionary functions of music,
141
movement synchronized to rhythmic sound,
135
–37
music as innate human ability,
140
,
142
,
143
as useless evolutionary by-product,
139
–41,
143
vocal mimicry and other preconditions,
137
–39,
142
–43
See also
parrots
Darwin, Charles,
54
–55,
112
–13,
140
,
141
–42
Dawkins, Richard,
208
,
226
Dellis, Nelson,
169
–71,
176
–78
Descent of Man, The
(Darwin),
140
Diamond, Jared,
214
–16
dominance hierarchy.
See
chickens; pecking order
doves,
14
,
252
–53
Dunbar’s number,
158
Dutton, Denis,
213
–14,
216
eBird website,
77
–78
emergence,
31
–32
emotion
as evolutionary survival benefit,
119
human response to albatrosses,
247
impact of art on viewer,
209
,
212
among magpies,
194
–95,
201
among self-aware creatures,
200
wheel of primary emotions,
118
–19
See also
fear; love
Emotion
(Plutchik),
119
emperor penguins,
125
Endler, John,
209
–12
Eurasian magpies.
See
magpies
European starlings.
See
starlings
Evolution of Cooperation, The
(Axelrod),
233
evolutionary strategies
art,
208
,
213
–14,
216
cooperative behaviors,
226
–28,
233
–36
emotion,
119
love and long-term commitment,
249
–50,
263
music,
140
,
141
nomadism,
85
,
87
“Experimental Evidence for Synchronization to a Musical Beat in a Nonhuman Animal” (Patel),
132
–33
fairy-wrens
cooperative nesting among genetic relatives,
224
,
226
–27