Songbirds may be able to learn grammar

[quaoar]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Bird_Grammar.html

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP SCIENCE WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The simplest grammar, long thought to be one of the skills that separate man from beast, can be taught to a common songbird, new research suggests.

Starlings learned to differentiate between a regular birdsong "sentence" and one containing a clause or another sentence of warbling, according to a study in Thursday's journal Nature. It took University of California at San Diego psychology researcher Tim Gentner a month and about 15,000 training attempts, with food as a reward, to get the birds to recognize the most basic of grammar in their own bird language.

Yet what they learned may shake up the field of linguistics.

While many animals can roar, sing, grunt or otherwise make noise, linguists have contended for years that the key to distinguishing language skills goes back to our elementary school teachers and basic grammar. Sentences that contain an explanatory clause are something that humans can recognize, but not animals, researchers figured.

[BOSSHOG]

I'm not sure of the grammar angle

but I truly love to hear our Mocking Birds carrying on every morning. They talk to me. They are especially delightful when they get into the holly berries, get drunk and wail for hours.

[rkc3]

2. I hear you Boss. The kids and I will get up early on Saturdays

and count the birds they imitate. Truly amazing.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. What's your address?

I'll send the drunken sots to you during their jolly season. ;)

I find mockingbirds most entertaining when they're going after the neighbor's cat. Those suckers know that a quick peck at the base of the tail dissuades a cat and pronto.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. I've seen them

take on large dogs. They're insane.

[AnneD]

13. Not insane,

just protective of their babies. They are the state bird here so they are protected (as if they need it). I have heard them immitate cell phone rings:rofl: T Mobile to be exact.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. Nah, they're insane.

A cell phone, c'mon now. I've heard car alarm imitations from them too.
It really messed with the head of the dominant male in my yard when I was pet-sitting a canary. The mocker kept trying to imitate the riff and kept failing miserably.
Score: canary 1, mockingbird nothing.

:silly:

[whatelseisnew]

21. I've heard the mockingbird cellphone ring

many times. It's amazing and very weird at the same time.

[AnneD]

23. Seriously,

I heard one do the 5 note T-mobile at an outside cafe. It took a while for me to figure it out because no one was picking up. I thought the 'phone' was ringing in a purse or something. Would have loved to get it on tape and sell it to T-mobile.

[RebelOne]

19. I have been attacked by mockingbirds.

When I was a kid they built a nest above the front door of our house. Everytime I went out the door, the birds would come swooping down.

[displacedtexan]

8. It's transformational grammar.

I see/ the cat.
I see/ the cat/ in the yard.
I see/ the dog/ in the yard.
I see/ the cat/ and/ the dog/ in the yard.

That's how we learn language.

[Gato Moteado]

1. wow...starlings are smarter than the bush family

nt

[pitohui]

7. starlings are smart birds

good mimics too, but they don't have v. loud voices so you don't notice it so much w. wild starlings

i have heard a captive starling give a perfect copy of a canary song

[okoboji]

20. here we go.......

now that its out, how smart these birds are, it's one more species BFEE will some how try to extinct. Can't have smart birds that talk, they might tell secrets.

[Gato Moteado]

22. well, to be honest, i have nothing personal against starlings but...

...if they could find a way to eradicate them from north america it would probably be a good thing. they're originally from europe and they were introduced to the states by europeans a couple hundred years ago and they have wreaked havoc on native songbird populations ever since.

[xchrom]

3. of course they can.

animals understand each other -- we're the ones playing catch up.

[Toucano]

12. Or more precisely, some of us are no longer struggling to NOT see

the true intellect of all creatures.

"Science" has long dismissed the intellegence of animals simply because it's different than our own.

[SpiralHawk]

4. The birds talk among themselves across species, too

This I know not from any scientific research, but from my own observations during many long (4 day) fasts deep in the forests, and up on the mountainsides. The Winged Ones talk to the human beings, too, but most people either do not value, do not listen, or do not know how to understand. With patience and care, rich conversations unfold.

Ta kesh na kay, SH

[Sequoia]

9. The wife who was slain "In Cold Blood"

thought the same thing and people thought she was daft. She said that birds do talk to us but our minds are too cluttered to listen. She said you had to clear out your mind and pay attention. I'm thinking you can't do this in a day. Of course, the Native Americans have always thought this in days long gone. When you walk through a forest with friends, keep the noise down because the animals don't like all that human noise.

[steely]

10. We're not smart enough to talk to them.

Isn't that ironic.

Hopefully they dig the food I put out - & it's really great if I go outside and they don't leave.

[OKthatsIT]

17. Check out these birds...especially Victor's audios

http://www.brg.homestead.com/

Amazing.

[woo me with science]

11. Next step: Kids force pet birds to do their English homework. nt

[Inland]

15. That'll get them locked out of Free Republic. nt

[kestrel91316]

16. Heck, I bet birds are better at grammer than the

average American these days..........sigh.

[AlienGirl]

18. Bird brains are amazing: "It's the worst day ever!"--my cockatoo

Yesterday my cockatoo broke his beak and had to go to the vet (which he hates doing) and get the rough edges filed and the bloody spot fixed with tissue glue. He was in a lot of pain; beaks are very sensitive, and he had exposed one of the big nerves.

Later that afternoon, we were sitting around getting ready to eat and I asked my Too, "How are you feeling?"

He replied, "It's the worst day ever."

Tucker