Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds.

Following on from Kaplan's well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, Bird Minds demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be.

She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels.