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Jeanette Bates's picture

Bird Song

            I have a few questions about the process of learning species-specific communication (i.e. language in humans, songs in birds). We agreed that a young member of the species can tune out other sounds, only paying attention to the sounds of its species. That would enable it to successfully learn the language or the song or whatever it may be. However, at least in birds, this doesn't always happen: (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/netcommunity/faq). Birds occasionally learn the songs of different species, or they somehow manage to create a new song by incorporating pieces of their species’ song and another’s. Obviously, not every bird gets confused and learns a different species’ song, but every bird is exposed to other bird songs everyday. So, what's wrong with these birds? Why do some birds get confused? Is there something wrong with the way they are interpreting information? And if birds are able to get confused about which song that they are supposed to sing, is it possible for humans to get confused about which animal they are supposed to mimic?  

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