One bird species learns another’s lingo: Scientists say nuthatches understand chickadee warnings

[BurtWorm]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17692984/

By Randolph E. Schmid
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:02 p.m. ET March 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language — chickadee.

It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that — interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat.

When a chickadee sees a predator, it issues warning call — a soft “seet” for a flying hawk, owl or falcon, or a loud “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” for a perched predator.

The “chick-a-dee” call can have 10 to 15 “dees” at the end and varies in sound to encode information on the type of predator. It also calls in other small birds to mob the predator, Christopher Templeton of the University of Washington said in a telephone interview.

“In this case the nuthatch is able to discriminate the information in this call,” said Templeton, a doctoral candidate.

The findings by Templeton and Erick Green, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Montana, are reported in this week’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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[robinlynne]

1. wow. thank-you. i like that story. they call in lots of small birds.. sounds like what

we need to be doing. the human species that is.

[mtnester]

2. This is fun to watch in the backyard....

Chickadees are first, almost always, to sound the alarm, then the wrens and nuthatches, then the Jays come marching in. Sparrows wait until they see how big a gang is forming, and the robins are the voyeurs of the group - they hang back as far as possible while still being able to see what is going on. I have watched jays, chickadees and nuthatches drive red tailed hawks from the yard...and the poor doves...always a target....clumsy as hell when they are earthbound. And the squirrels sit there and make their screech. Woodpeckers, both species in our yard, simply do not get involved. And the gackles and starlings usually vanish, unless it is one of their own being stalked, then they simply line up and watch (whew, it ain't me). Same thing goes for driving cats from the yard.

Backyard wildlife can be as entertaining as you want it to be. It entertains us every day.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Chick-a-dees and Blue Jays are the #1 birds in my feeder.

Chick-a-dees are really interesting, hardy little birds. Very curious creatures. When I'm out in the woods, they always seems to be one around watching what I'm doing.

I didn't know that about their warning calls,,,,thanks!

[dysfunctional press]

4. ummm....isn't that how "the birds" started...?

damn that fucking movie...i spent two of the best years of my childhood afraid to go outside.

[stevedeshazer]

5. I'm convinced that animals are far more intelligent than most humans believe.

There are just too many examples to dismiss animals as distinct from humans. We're animals, too. We just learned the beginnings of chickadee language.

[karlrschneider]

6. How weird, I was listening to one just as I clicked your post!

Now I'll be obsessed with counting the 'dees' :D