Call this science "lite". The book is essentially a series of anecdotes gathered from all over - mostly from casual observers, not scientists. The anecdotes are amusing and illustrated with line drawings, but as any real scientist knows, anecdotes do not real science make. Between the anecdotes, the scientist author speculates about the neurological bases of crow intelligence. But again, these are mostly speculations, not well-established findings. Marzluff has a clear bias - he believes crows are almost as intelligent as humans, and more so than other intelligent animals, and one senses he marshalls the anecdotes to support that bias. On the other hand, it is by now clear that corvids are way more intelligent than previously supposed, along with parrots, elephants, pigs, apes, and cetaceans.

This was a fascinating book. That said, I was more interested in the real life anecdotes about interactions with clever birds. The nitty gritty science got a little dry. This is a book I would buy.

Wonderful. But note, if you are looking for an autobiography with crow stories peppered in (ala Haupt's Crow Planet) you will be disappointed. This book is about the crows and is written in a concise scientific style.