18.7.05

Birds imitate man-made, electronic sounds

In Germany, orinthologists have determined that birds imitate mobile phone ring tones. I'm very pleased to see this article, as I have noticed birds in my neighborhood imitating car alarms (you know the tune). Bird's songs are a great example of memes occurring outside the human race, and bird's ability to mimic human speech sounds is widely known already; it seemed completely logical that they would begin to imitate urban noises (albeit in a monophonic way, since birds can't sing chords) and incorporate these sounds into their song-vocabulary.

Bew-bew-bew-bew-bew-bew-bew-bew
woop-woop-woop-woop-woop-woop-woop-woop
doo-dee--doo-dee--doo-dee--doo-dee-
wooooooooooooooooo-wooooooooooooooooo
errt-errt-errt-errt-errt-errt-errt-errt

While my girlfriend scoffed at the thought, I insisted it was at least possible - and awfully coincidental that the birds picked up those sounds around the same time a neighbor of ours couldn't keep his car alarm (the ubiquious "song" of the city) from going off for an entire hour at a time. Some are helping to call attention to the similarities with a little clever editing, too.

1 comment:

wouldpkr said...

I totally agree!
Im not going to hold my breath waiting to hear one that sounds like the train or a tractor though...