Language: Biologists Teach Birds A Foreign Language

Birds are quite an intelligent group of endothermic vertebrates. Their lightweight but strong skeletal structure gives them the opportunity to clearly navigate the skies and look for potential food on the ground. Yet did you know they are also capable of learning another language? 

New research published in the journal Current Biology shows that some bird species are indeed that gifted. Here's how it works: by eavesdropping on some of their bird friends and neighbors, birds can actually pick up a bit of a new language.

"The first bird we tested lived on the ANU campus near my office. There was general disbelief and excitement when the bird learned the task perfectly," said the leader of the study, Professor Robert Magrath, from the ANU Research School of Biology, in a news release. "We had been doing experiments on learning using different methods, but until then with little success. So it was exciting to finally crack the practical problems of carrying out this experiment, and get clear results."

As it turns out, many animals might receive certain danger signals while listening in on their neighbors nearby. During the study, researchers trained fairy-wrens while playing unfamiliar sounds to them while throwing a model glider of a predatory bird, a currawong or a sparrowhawk over them.

From this, the birds eventually learned to associate two stimuli and began to scatter at the playing of the sound itself. However, the birds did not react to other sounds unassociated with the original glider training.

"Recognizing other species' calls is a remarkable ability, because there are lots of species in a natural community, and lots of different types of calls. It's like understanding multiple foreign languages," Professor Magrath added.

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