About the Author

BERND HEINRICH is an acclaimed scientist and the author of numerous books, including the best-selling Winter World, Mind of the Raven, Why We Run, The Homing Instinct, and One Wild Bird at a Time. Among Heinrich's many honors is the 2013 PEN New England Award in nonfiction for Life Everlasting. He resides in Maine.

Reviews

"An amazing book...a scientist and naturalist of the first rank...a nature writer of uncommon talent." -- Edward O. Wilson"Heinrich has a rare ability to embed dense scientific explications within graceful, lightfooted nature writing." -- David Quammen, New York Times Book Review"Bernd Heinrich is one of the finest living examples of that strange hybrid: the science writer." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review"A compelling exploration of the nature of consciousness with an unremittingly delicious jaunt in the woods.... a grand storyteller." -- Baltimore Sun"Heinrich brings alive the romance of field research...A splendid book." -- Library Journal (starred review)

In a book that demonstrates the rewards of caring and careful observation of the natural world, Heinrich (Ravens in Winter, etc.), a noted biologist, Guggenheim fellow and National Book Award nominee (for Bumblebee Economics, 1979), explores the question of raven intelligence through observation, experiment and personal experience. Although he has raised many ravens through the years (beginning with a tame pair that shared his apartment at UCLA in the 1960s), Heinrich focuses much of his attention on four nestlings he adopted from the Maine woods near his home. As he describes tending to the demanding babies, chopping up roadkill, cleaning up after them and enduring their noisy calls for food, readers will marvel at how much Heinrich knows and at how much joy he derives from acquiring that knowledge. As the birds mature, Heinrich details how these and other ravens feed, nest, mate, play and establish a society with clear hierarchical levels. At its best, his writing is distinguished by infectious enthusiasm, a lighthearted style and often lyrical descriptions of the natural world. His powers of observation are impressive and his descriptionsÄof how a raven puffs its feathers in a dominance display, of how a female calls for food from her mate, of the pecking order at a carcassÄare formidably precise. Toward the end of the book, Heinrich addresses the question implied by the title: To what degree can ravens be said to think? His answer: "I suspect that the great gulf or discontinuity that exists between us and all other animals is... ultimately less a matter of consciousness than of culture." Illustrations. (May)

"An amazing book...a scientist and naturalist of the first rank...a nature writer of uncommon talent." -- Edward O. Wilson"Heinrich has a rare ability to embed dense scientific explications within graceful, lightfooted nature writing." -- David Quammen, New York Times Book Review"Bernd Heinrich is one of the finest living examples of that strange hybrid: the science writer." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review"A compelling exploration of the nature of consciousness with an unremittingly delicious jaunt in the woods.... a grand storyteller." -- Baltimore Sun"Heinrich brings alive the romance of field research...A splendid book." -- Library Journal (starred review)