Danielle Whittaker was never particularly fond of birds. She started her studies as an evolutionary biologist by focusing on the monogamous mating patterns of gibbons in Indonesia, but the small sample size to observe in a remote area wasn’t fulfilling as a scientist, so she switched to the most monogamous (and plentiful) species: birds. In her years of examining bird mating at the Beacon Center for the Study of Evolution in Action at Michigan State University, she discovered not only a love of birds and their particularities, but patterns of behavior that showed birds have a more highly keen sense of smell than what was established by scientists as respected as John James Audubon himself. Whittaker examines all this and more in her new book, The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent (Johns Hopkins University Press). We recently spoke with her about her research on bird behavior and how their sense of smell and their own unique scent might be used to help conservation efforts in the future.