Jennifer_Ackerman
Jennifer Ackerman
American nature writer
Jennifer Ackerman (born 1959) is an American author known for her ornithology books, including the bestselling book The Genius of Birds.[1]
In that book, Ackerman posits that, contrary to popular metaphors such as "bird brained," birds are actually quite intelligent and think in complex ways.[2] Called a "peppy survey of the science of bird intelligence" by The Guardian, the book was a New York Times best seller in 2017.[3] She followed up on this idea in her 2020 book The Bird Way combining personal observations and a literature review of the latest in bird research to discuss various aspects of bird life.[4][5] She was the narrator for the audiobook version of both books.[6]
Ackerman is the author of eight books which have been published in more than 20 languages.[7] In addition to her published books, she is also a contributing writer to Scientific American, National Geographic, and The New York Times. She worked for National Geographic for nine years, editing their well-known book The Curious Naturalist.[8] She left that job to write freelance and spent time in Lewes, Delaware, researching the coastal area and writing her book Notes From the Shore which was reissued as Birds By the Shore in 2019.[9]
Her earlier books focus on health topics, from the Strong Women's Guide to Total Health which she wrote with Miriam Nelson, to her book Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream which uses the framework of a single day to discuss a wide variety of things going on in the human body at various times.[10]