Pluck - by Jennifer Ackerman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of What an Owl Knows, The Genius of Birds, and The Bird Way, a groundbreaking investigation into female birds

Recent studies on female birds are overturning much of what we thought we knew about birds. In the past, research focused almost exclusively on the male half of the class. But now that females are getting their time in the sun, they're toppling all sorts of ideas about why birds are the way they are--why they look and sound and act the way they do, how they pick their mates and raise their young, how they move from place to place, and how they're adapting to a changing world. Some female birds sing more than their male counterparts and outshine them in dazzling plumage. Others boast bodies twice as large as their mates and outdo them in aggression. Still others have entirely different migratory patterns from their male counterparts and are quicker to adapt to climate change.

Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about birds for more than twenty years, but she grew up with the conventional wisdom found in field guides and bird books that females were drab and passive. As scientists are now finding, nothing could be further from the truth. From ice-filled New Hampshire lakes to the deep recesses of the Amazonian jungles, female birds are capable of typical male behaviors like aggression, competition, complex song, and sexual assertiveness. They also have radically different ways of living and surviving than males, and wildly different skills, opportunities, and risks. The consequences of this are profound. It's changing the way we think about birds, and how we plan for their protection.

This remarkable new view of female birds will change how we see and experience all birds.

Review Quotes

The Bird Way "Ackerman's excitement and love for it are evident in her writing. Her superb storytelling paints a rich picture that engages the reader's imagination, making sometimes-hard-to-grasp research accessible." --Science Magazine "[Ackerman's] exhilarating book will leave you as awestruck by the complexities and contradictions of bird life as she is." --San Francisco Chronicle "Like a bowerbird, Ms. Ackerman gathers and displays treasures to amaze and delight--then lets the scientists' stories take center stage [. . .] Refreshingly, Ackerman spotlights a number of female researchers." --Wall Street Journal The Genius of Birds "Ackerman writes with a light but assured touch, her prose rich in fact but economical in delivering it." --Kirkus Reviews "Ackerman is a pro at parsing scientific con­cepts in an accessible style, and her lyrical writing underscores her appreciation for the beauty and adaptability of birds." --BookPage What an Owl Knows "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." --The New York Times "A must-read for all bird lovers." --The Guardian "A gripping history." --Financial Times "An enchanting guide." --People

About the Author

Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for more than three decades. Her previous book, What An Owl Knows, was an instant New York Times bestseller and named a best book of 2023 by The Economist, The New York Times, and NPR's Science Friday. The Bird Way was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her New York Times bestselling book The Genius of Birds has been translated into thirty languages and was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2016 by The Wall Street Journal. Her other books include Birds by the Shore, Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, and Chance in the House of Fate. Ackerman's articles and essays have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and many other publications. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bunting Institute.