Listener supported WNYC Studios.

What can you learn about chicken intelligence by watching your very own personal flock?

Their social lives are exquisitely important to them. Belonging to a flock is what

matters. It's Thursday, November 7th, and you're listening to Science Friday. I'm SciFry producer

Charles Bergquist. This episode, two stories about our relationship with birds.

In a bit, a trip out to Antarctica, where we'll hear how tourist photos can help ecologists studying penguin colonies.

But first, guest host Rachel Fultman talks with naturalist and author Cy Montgomery about her new book, What the Chicken Knows.

Here's Rachel.

I want to spend some time with another popular bird, chickens.

They don't exactly have a reputation of being the sharpest creatures in the animal kingdom. I mean, it's hard to think of another animal whose major claim to fame is running

around with its head cut off. But talk to anyone who raises chickens, and they'll tell

you that these birds are far more intelligent and social than we often give them credit for.

My next guess is among that flock and has firsthand experience of the bond between human and

chicken. Sy Montgomery, author of the new book What the Chicken Knows, A New Appreciation of the

World's Most Familiar Bird.

She's based in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Sy, welcome to Science Friday.

I'm thrilled to be here.

So how has your understanding of chickens changed since you first started keeping them?

Well, I kind of went into having our first flock with beginner's mind, and I didn't really have any expectations, except that I knew I would love them. Whatever they wanted to show me,

I was going to be thrilled. And sure enough, day one, I was absolutely gobsmacked.

I got a flock from my dear friend, Gretchen Moran. It was a housewarming or barn warming present.

...