Why parrots and other birds talk - Australian Geographic

 

 

 

Parrots and lyrebirds: the great pretenders

By:Hannah Price | September-20-2011

Why do parrots, lyrebirds and crows, have an amazing ability to mimic the sounds around them?

The superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) can mimic sounds like chainsaws and camera shutters. (Credit: Wikimedia)

 CHAINSAWS, SHUTTER-BOX CAMERAS and pneumatic drills. These are not totally unusual sounds, but what's highly unusual is their origin: from the mouth of a native bird.

Lyrebirds have an astonishing repertoire of sounds they mimic from their environment, which includes more than 20 other bird calls, including kookaburras, as well as sophisticated mechanical sounds.

But just why some birds learn and repeat sounds - lyrebirds, crows, budgerigars and parrots are known to -  is a mystery experts are gradually unravelling. "It's a part of their language," says Jaynia Sladek, from the Australian Museum's ornithology department. "For some species it's like advertising 'I am very fit because I can learn a lot of different birds' [calls]'".

Bird mimicry

The male lyrebird, with his wide-ranging syrinx (a bird's vocal organs), will sing a medley of mimicry to attract and impress a female; the more detailed and varying his repertoire is, the more interesting it seems to potential mates - although the clanging of a construction site may not be appealing to us, it's pabulum for the curiosity of a female lyrebird. Much like females of other bird species, they do not take part in the imitating, but simply judge the competing males' patchwork symphonies.

Once learnt, it seems a lyrebird rarely forgets a call, and these sounds are also passed on through the generations. There are some lyrebirds in Victoria, Australia, that still recreate the sounds of axes, saws and old-fashioned cameras which haven't been used in the region for years.

Because the best singers will tend to be photographed more by experts, they are the most likely to be the best imitators of camera noises and also to pass both these abilities onto their offspring, says Martyn Robinson a naturalist at the Australia Museum in Sydney. "Because they're the most successful birds [with females] and the most photographed birds, they're imitating all the old sounds," he told Australian Geographic.

Talking cockatoos - it's a status thing

This correlation between genetic fitness and mimicking ability is also seen in cockatoos. As a flock-living bird, their position in the pecking order is linked to the extent to which other birds will listen to them. "You'll get a number of talkers within those flocks, because of their status," says Martyn. "If it's someone worth copying, they'll do it."

Recent evidence has shown that ex-captive cockatoos that have been let loose can teach wild birds to talk.

It's not just cockatoos and lyrebirds that have the ability to imitate. Corellas, bower birds, magpies and currawongs also have been heard mimicking calls and songs. Even common ravens and crows have an impressive ability to mimic sounds. "They have been taught to do pieces of music and it's like listening to a tape recorder," says Martyn.

Why do parrots and other birds talk?

These birds are not all closely related species, so there is no over-arching link between them, other than their desire to mimic. While some female bird species are attracted to a male's flashy colouring or ability to dance, the females of these species are more impressed by a mate's mimicking abilities.

Martyn says that while it's possible that all birds could imitate sounds, many birds may not use this skill because it's not attractive to potential mates.

"It depends very much on the species," he says. "Even within our own species, people like different things. Imagine the much greater differences from species to species."









 LINK:  http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/why-parrots-and-other-birds-talk.htm
Why parrots and other birds talk - Australian Geographic

Drunk animals: inebriation in the wild - Australian Geographic

Humans are not the only animals who like getting drunk. Plenty of birds and mammals get tipsy on natural brews.

Red-collared lorikeets and other birds get drunk from eating fermented fruits in the wild. (Credit: Jerry Oldenettel/Flickr)

THEY STAGGER ALL OVER the place, can't keep steady on their perches, and fall head first into their food bowls. Meet the lorikeets under vet Dr Stephen Cutter's care.
He's used to riding out the drunken parrot season before the rains each year, when scores of intoxicated red-collared lorikeets (Trichoglossus rubritorquis) are picked up off Darwin's streets and brought to the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston. But this year is so bad he's calling it "a massive outbreak".
"People find them huddled in a corner or at the bottom of a tree. Mostly they just look sick -  just a sad little bundle of feathers hiding from the world," Stephen says. "They tend to be depressed, they can't fly, and they have difficulty climbing or balancing on perches."
In northern Australia, mango, umbrella, and other trees, can cause mild drunkenness in birds when the fruit or nectar ferments at different times throughout the year. But many of the lorikeets brought to the hospital aren't just mildly drunk -  they're completely sloshed, and sometimes for days at a time.
The most probable culprit is the Schotia brachypetala, a southern African native, commonly known as the drunken parrot tree. Stephen says he's seen this species pop up in gardens all over Darwin in recent years, and its rapid rise to abundance may be taking its toll on the birds. So far this year, more than a hundred lorikeets have been adversely affected from over-indulging on fermented fruits.

Drunk animals can't help their problem

Birds aren't experienced drinkers - unlike humans, they don't drink to get drunk.

"They don't want to ingest a lot of alcohol, but they're probably just being forced into the situation because there's not a lot of fruit available to them," says Dr Glen Chilton, ornithologist at James Cook University, Townsville.
Fruit-eating birds are particularly vulnerable because they depend so heavily on a food source that ferments, and to get enough proteins they need to eat a lot of it.
Glen says if the lorikeets in Darwin appear to be getting drunk on a larger scale, it is probably related to the limited supply of ripe fruit, a challenge that isn't unique to Australian birds.

In the northern hemisphere, heavy winter snows make it very difficult for birds to find fruit, and the rotting varieties that emerge once the snow starts to thaw - blackberries, hawthorn berries, juniper berries, crab apples - can produce very toxic levels of ethanol as the natural sugars ferment.

In the United States, robins, waxwings and starlings have been found dead in large flocks after eating toxic berries and diving into the ground or colliding with solid structures. In Vienna, Austria, 40 songbirds were found with broken necks and damaged livers after eating fermented berries and flying into windows.

Drunk animals like to party

Fermented fruits are not a first choice for many birds, but other animals would give anything to get their dose. (See a list of 10 animals known to get intoxicated)
"There's plenty of evidence that orangutans, and apes and elephants will wonder for miles to seek the pleasure of fermented fruits; so they basically like to get drunk," says Professor Gisela Kaplan, an expert in animal behaviour at the University of New England in Armidale.
The drawback for these keen drinkers is that happy hour only comes around at certain times during the year. "The opportunity to be inebriated is limited in animals, simply because they have to wait for the natural processes to occur," says Gisela. "They can't just go to a store and ask 365 days a year."
So when the fruits are overripe, the party animals make the most of it. Gisela says orang-utans in Borneo binge on the Durian fruit, which produces a very strong alcohol when it ferments. While in Africa, elephants and monkeys have been reported - though anecdotally -  getting tipsy on the fermenting fruit of palm trees and the Marula tree.

In Sweden just last month, an intoxicated moose made international headlines when it became entangled in an apple tree in a residential area after gorging on the fermented fruit.
But while animals seem to enjoy behaving badly under the influence, the phenomenon is seldom studied.
Even if alcohol isn't physically harmful to birds, it does make them vulnerable in other ways. When birds are drunk they lose mobility, making them helpless in the presence of predators. And if they can manage to fly while under the influence, their lack of coordination may have devastating consequences, much like those affecting humans who drink and drive.
"We know that [drunkenness] doesn't have serious side effects on mammals," says Gisela. "Mammals just sleep it off, but we have little knowledge of how birds deal with it."










Drunk animals: inebriation in the wild - Australian Geographic

Birds of a feather talk together - Australian Geographic

Pet parrots, such as cockatoos, that are let loose in the wild are teaching native birds to talk.

Wild parrots like cockatoos have been learning words from ex-pet birds. (Credit: Getty Images)

NO NEED TO THINK you're going bird-brained if you hear mysterious voices from the trees - it's likely just a curious cockatoo wanting a chat. Native parrots, especially cockatoos, seem to be learning the art of conversation from their previously domesticated friends.

The Australian Museum's Search and Discover desk, which offers a free service to identify species, has received numerous reports of encounters with talkative birds in the wild from mystified citizens who thought they were hearing voices.

Martyn Robinson, a naturalist who works at the desk, explains that occasionally a pet cockatoo escapes or is let loose, and "if it manages to survive long enough to join a wild flock, [other birds] will learn from it."

Birds mimic each other

As well as learning from humans directly, "the birds will mimic each other," says Jaynia Sladek, from the Museum's ornithology department. "There's no reason why, if one comes into the flock with words, [then] another member of the flock wouldn't pick it up as well."

'Hello cockie' is the most common phrase, though there have been a few cases of foul-mouthed feathered friends using expletives which we can't repeat here. 

The evolution of language could well be passed on through the generations, says Martyn. "If the parents are talkers and they produce chicks, their chicks are likely to pick up some of that," he says. This phenomenon is not unique; some lyrebirds in southern Australia still reproduce the sounds of axes and old shutter-box cameras their ancestors once learnt.
 

Birds of a feather chat together

In rural areas talking parrots will probably begin to lose their language abilities, says Martyn, with some words "likely to just disintegrate a bit and become part of that particular flock's repertoire."

However, in Australia's big cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, cockatoos will probably maintain and improve their vocabulary due to regular contact with humans. "That's certainly the case in the Botanic Gardens [in Sydney]," says Martyn. "If you say 'hello' or 'hello cockie' to the cockatoos, and if they're interested in you and not just picking around for food, you may well trigger a response."




Check out this video of a cockatoo who's been taught to talk:









Birds of a feather talk together - Australian Geographic

 LINK: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/Parrots-and-other-wild-birds-able-to-talk.htm

Fashionable Falcon

 

This feather-photo pillow by the talented designer Louise Roe *

LINK: http://www.louiseroe.dk/Products/INTERIOR/fjer.html

 LINK: http://misscavendish.blogspot.ca/2012/03/horsefeathers.html
Source: MISS CAVENDISH

Adoption Story

Crow Adopts a Kitten

A friendship between a kitten and a crow who saved her life.

License:  Standard YouTube License

Talking Parakeet

SMARTEST TALKING BIRD IN THE WORLD

says: I love you, pretty bird, I'm a smart birdie, his phone number, I'm a talking parakeet, get me out of here, have a nice day, Your so cute, good morning, good night, hi birdie and more

*HOW I TAUGHT MY BIRD TO TALK*


I first taught my parakeet "pretty bird" because I heard that phrase is a good one to start with. Myself and my family would always repeat it to my bird over and over throughout the day and every time we walked past his cage. After about four months, he finally said it. Now he can repeat phrases and words in just a couple of weeks.So, just think of a phrase and repeat it over and over to your bird. Don't give up because it might take a while until it says it's first word. If you have any questions, just ask!

 License:  Standard YouTube License