Birds are "master ventriloquists" who can even imitate the sounds of other animals

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: EVEE (School of Life Sciences, Peking University)

Producer: China Science Expo

When talking about imitators among birds, isn’t the first thing that comes to mind parrots?

After all, parrots are the owners of the idiom "parrots imitate others", and they are "masters of imitation" certified by humans. I believe many friends have been surprised by the peculiar and extraordinary ability of parrots, which comes from the peculiar structure of the parrot's mouth. In fact, not only parrots, but also starlings and mynah birds can imitate human "speaking" after training.

However, what we are going to talk about today is not how parrots learn to "speak" like humans, but the "ventriloquist masters" among birds in nature who live a comfortable life by imitating the sounds of other species.

Parrots that can imitate human "talk"

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

Among birds there are ventriloquist

In the essay "Mouth Skills" written by Lin Sihuan, a Qing Dynasty writer, there is a sentence praising ventriloquists:

"Then all the guests changed color and left their seats, waving their sleeves and arms, their legs trembling, and they almost wanted to leave first."

The ventriloquist portrayed the panic of the people after the fire so vividly that the audience even wanted to escape.

This kind of scene has also happened in the wild:

A spotted magpie flew through the air, and its sharp eyes had already spotted its prey - a young bird crying for food in the nest of a brown thornbill. Just as it was about to dive and take away the delicious meal it had reserved, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded - it was the warning call of a yellow-winged honeyeater, meaning "a brown hawk is coming." After looking around, the spotted magpie finally gave up a delicious meal that was within reach in order to avoid its natural enemies and hurried away.

The Brown Thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) is a very small bird, less than 10 cm long and weighing only 7 grams. It is mainly distributed in Australia and New Zealand.

Brown thornbill

(Image source: Wikipedia)

The spotted bell-magpie (Strepera graculina) is one of the natural enemies of the Brown Spur-billed Warbler. In order to supplement nutrition during the breeding period, it will search for the Brown Spur-billed Warbler's nests and prey on its chicks.

Magpie

(Image source: Wikipedia)

As you may have guessed, there was actually no Yellow-winged Honeyeater, let alone any so-called Brown Eagle attacking. This drama was completely directed and performed by the Brown Thornbill. Since the Spotted Magpie is much larger than the Brown Thornbill, it obviously cannot protect its offspring by brute force. So after discovering the Spotted Magpie, the Brown Thornbill chose another method, using its own expertise and relying on its lifelike ventriloquism to escape.

One can't help but exclaim: There are birds that are good at ventriloquism. A bird stands on a branch, and although it seems that a group of birds are there, after the powerful enemy retreats, there is only one bird on the branch.

Deceptive alarm calls: Birds' version of 'crying wolf'

Most birds use a unique "language" to communicate with their companions. The " chirping " of one species of bird may be heard as " what are you talking about " by another species of bird. You can compare it to the scene of communicating with a foreigner without knowing the foreign language.

However, there are exceptions. Some birds can also collect information from the sound signals of other birds. This is easy to understand. After all, whether in English or Chinese, isn’t the pronunciation of "mother" almost the same?

The alarm calls of birds fall into this category. Generally speaking, there are two types of alarm calls. One is to sound the alarm after discovering danger, calling on friends to attack and drive away predators together.

Short-billed crows besiege red-tailed hawk

(Image source: Wikipedia)

One is that when birds see a predator in the sky, they make calls of a specific frequency to tell their peers that danger is coming and it is time to flee. As for what kind of alarm is issued, it depends on whether the predator can defeat it with human wave tactics.

The alarm call made by the Brown Thornbill in the previous article belongs to the second type of alarm call. As a bird of prey, the Brown Hawk preys on the Brown Thornbill, the Yellow-winged Honeyeater and the Nosing Magpie, and the Nosing Magpie will prey on the Brown Thornbill. When only the Brown Hawk appears, the Brown Thornbill will make a normal alarm call, and the Yellow-winged Honeyeater will also make a corresponding alarm call; and when the Nosing Magpie appears, the Brown Thornbill will imitate the alarm call of the Yellow-winged Honeyeater and tell the Nosing Magpie "The Brown Hawk is coming." When the Nosing Magpie hears that its natural enemy is coming, it can only flee in shame to protect itself.

Predator-prey relationships among four species and the alarm calls of Brown Thornbill and Yellow-winged Honeyeater

(Image source: References)

However, the imitation ability of the Brown Thornbill is not limited to this one. They can also imitate the siege alarms of other birds to attract reinforcements and repel the enemy.

Brown thornbill can imitate the alarm calls of many bird species

(Image source: References)

Everyone, is this the bird version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"? Whether it is to make natural enemies flee at the first sign of trouble, or to call on the crowd to drive away the enemy together, the Brown Thornbill has fully demonstrated the secret of false intelligence.

You don’t have to learn from birds, birds can also imitate other animals

In addition to mimicking their own kind, some birds have expanded their business to include the sounds of other animals in their imitation. This deceptive vocal imitation can allow birds to obtain food that they would not have the opportunity to get their hands on, and the fork-tailed cuckoo living in south-central Africa is a leader in this field.

The fork-tailed cuckoo lurks around social species, including meerkats, and after the meerkats get food, it uses the meerkat alarm call it has secretly learned to sound the alarm to scare the meerkats away and steal the delicious food.

Fork-tailed Cuckoo

(Image source: Wikipedia)

However, the fork-tailed cuckoo does not only deceive by imitating the alarm of the mongoose, their "IQ" may be higher than we think. As the saying goes, "false but true, true but false", falsehood mixed with truth is the easiest to deceive people.

Sometimes, the fork-tailed cuckoo actually acts as a lookout for the mongoose . When a predator approaches, they will sound a "goodwill" alarm to let the mongoose evacuate quickly. But more often, the fork-tailed cuckoo will sound a "false" alarm after the mongoose catches food, then swoop down and snatch the food. Scientists believe that the fork-tailed cuckoo uses a variety of different alarms to better deceive its "financial sponsors" and obtain greater benefits.

In addition to the fork-tailed cuckoo's imitation of the mongoose's call, there are even "ventriloquist" birds that can imitate the sound of a rattlesnake shaking its tail to protect themselves.

In America, a small owl called the burrowing owl lives in caves on the ground. Although owls are considered birds of prey, they still have many natural enemies on the ground, especially for the chicks of the burrowing owl. Before they grow up, the cave is their shelter, but if there is an invasion of natural enemies, the cave with nowhere to escape will also be their burial place.

Little Owl

(Image source: Wikipedia)

To reduce the likelihood of predators entering the burrows, when the chicks feel threatened they make a distinctive call that is similar to the sound of a rattlesnake shaking its tail.

"There's a rattlesnake in the cave? I'd better not go in." It is estimated that many predators will stay away from this cave after hearing the cries of the baby birds. After all, no one wants to be bitten by a rattlesnake.

Conclusion

Nature is so wonderful. When we walk under the woods, the birds on the branches chirp. Do you think they are singing their own songs or stealing other people's songs?

Editor: Sun Chenyu

References:

Igic, B., McLachlan, J., Lehtinen, I., & Magrath, RD (2015). Crying wolf to a predator: deceptive vocal mimicry by a bird protecting young. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1809), 20150798.

Rowe, MP, Coss, RG, & Owings, DH (1986). Rattlesnake rattles and burrowing owl hisses: a case of acoustic Batesian mimicry. Ethology, 72(1), 53-71.

Flower, TP, Gribble, M., & Ridley, AR (2014). Deception by flexible alarm mimicry in an African bird. Science, 344(6183), 513-516.

Igic, B., & Magrath, RD (2013). Fidelity of vocal mimicry: identification and accuracy of mimicry of heterospecific alarm calls by the brown thornbill. Animal Behavior, 85(3), 593-603.

Igic, B., & Magrath, RD (2014). A songbird mimics different heterospecific alarm calls in response to different types of threat. Behavioral Ecology, 25(3), 538-548.