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What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds
Top of the pile
78
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
68/100Critics
88/100Scholars
Author:
Jennifer Ackerman
Publisher:
Penguin Press
Date:
June 13, 2023
For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Though our fascination goes back centuries, scientists have only recently begun to understand in deep detail the complex nature of these extraordinary birds.
What The Reviewers Say
Ackerman is a warm and companionable guide, so enthusiastic about her subject that I suspect even the avian-indifferent will be charmed by her encounters with owls and the dedicated people who study them. Each species seems like a marvel, but certain owls are so special that her book is peppered with superlatives.
The many, many fans of Jennifer Ackerman’s 2016 bestseller The Genius of Birds were likely bird-people, if not actual birders then certainly bird-curious, and those readers might have dreamed that this author would some day turn her attention specifically to one of the most charismatic of all birds, the owl. Those readers, and all the many thousands of others who’ve always been fascinated by these birds, will rejoice at the appearance of Ackerman’s new book.
Ackerman, a frequent contributor to National Geographic and the Smithsonian, is an intrepid reporter, hacking her way through dense undergrowth in Montana to find northern pygmy owls or getting covered in red dirt setting traps for burrowing owls in southern Brazil.
Across nine chapters – each devoted to an aspect of their lives and encompassing everything from ancient folklore to the latest scientific developments – she makes a strong case that these enigmatic and often misunderstood birds are worthy of close attention. While her straightforward style enables easy comprehension for the science-phobic, there is lyricism too.
