A Bird's IQ: Innovation, Intelligence, and Problem Solving in the Avian World

“This book is a gem, witty, entertaining, insightful, and deeply informative—a must-read for anyone interested in birds or brains.” JENNIFER ACKERMAN, New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, What an Owl Knows, and The Bird Way

“A vivid book on avian intelligence.”—Booklist, STARRED Review

Discover the secret intelligence of birds, revealed by one of the world’s leading researchers in avian innovation.

Surveying a wide variety of birds, including crows, finches, tits, and parrots, Louis Lefebvre, a world-renowned expert in animal behavior, describes the remarkable innovations and problem-solving abilities of species often dismissed as “featherbrains.” From crows using cars as nutcrackers to cockatoos crafting tools, Lefebvre reveals how birds exhibit creativity, social learning, and even cultural transmission—traits once thought to be exclusive to humans and other primates.

Blending his decades of scientific research with engaging anecdotes, Lefebvre examines the evolutionary forces that have shaped avian intelligence. He explores how birds adapt to urban environments, innovate in response to challenges, and pass down knowledge across generations. This goldmine of bird behavior yields an “innovation quotient” (like our human IQ) widely used by researchers to measure and rank how innovative a bird species is. Using his encyclopedic knowledge, Lefebvre answers questions such as:

• When a bird species learns a new technique, how do their innovations spread?
• Why is research on bird cognition being used to train AI models and even robots?
• What makes certain birds endlessly innovative while others stubbornly repeat the same behaviors?

With vivid storytelling and groundbreaking insights, A Bird’s IQ invites readers to reconsider their perceptions, celebrating the ingenuity of birds and highlighting the interconnectedness of all intelligent life.

Louis Lefebvre is professor emeritus of biology at McGill University and associate researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was awarded the Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire prize by the French Society for the Study of Animal Behavior. Lefebvre is the author of four novels written in French, two of which were finalists for the Governor General’s Awards. He lives in Montreal, Québec.