For the people saying birds only sing to attract mates, there was a post just a couple days ago about how an ornithologist pointed a hyper sensitive microphone at lone birds standing on a wire and could hear them softly singing to themselves at nearly imperceptible levels even when they were entirely alone.
I should find it, there’s a video about a japanese researcher who identified that certain calls mean “threat”, or “threat: snake” and they follow grammar rules, meaning “snake threat” doesn’t provoke any kind of scattering behavior. These calls are also understood cross-species to some extent. Birds that speak different “dialects” can still understand each other.
For the people saying birds only sing to attract mates, there was a post just a couple days ago about how an ornithologist pointed a hyper sensitive microphone at lone birds standing on a wire and could hear them softly singing to themselves at nearly imperceptible levels even when they were entirely alone.
Also, their calls are a language.
I should find it, there’s a video about a japanese researcher who identified that certain calls mean “threat”, or “threat: snake” and they follow grammar rules, meaning “snake threat” doesn’t provoke any kind of scattering behavior. These calls are also understood cross-species to some extent. Birds that speak different “dialects” can still understand each other.
[edit] Here’s one. And here’s the second.
Maybe they’re trying to attract the orinthologist. Or they’re practicing for showtime.
The avian equivalent of giving yourself a pep talk in the mirror before a date.