Talking Birds: Fact vs. Fiction

There are a number of tales involving talking animals, but these tales require our suspension of belief.  Even while we accept talking animals in the context of a story, we know that, in real life, animals don’t talk.  Or do they?

Buddy, a Double Yellow-headed Amazon Parrot

If you’ve ever walked into the World Bird Sanctuary Nature Center, you’ve probably been greeted by a cheery “Hello!” from one of our resident parrots.  Perhaps you’ve been surprised with a “Hi!” from one of our ravens as you walk past our birds on the display line.

Some birds do have the ability to learn to mimic certain words of the human language.  In fact, some birds, if worked with regularly, have even been known to learn word associations and string together sentences.  There are some surprisingly intelligent species of bird out there.

Aesop one of our resident birds....and, no, you don't have to split his tongue to make him talk.

There is a popular myth that in order to get a crow to learn to talk, you first have to split its tongue.  There are two things wrong with this myth: 1) it’s cruel, and 2) it’s just that – a myth.  Birds that talk don’t do so in the same way we do.  Humans use their lips, tongue, and teeth to help form sound, and in case you haven’t noticed, birds don’t have lips or teeth.  They do have beaks and tongues, but neither of these are used by a bird to produce sound.  Birds use their syrinx to produce sound.  The syrinx is the avian version of our larynx, or voicebox.  All of those fantastically different sounds that birds make are produced by varying the amount and velocity of air moving across the syrinx.

One stunning example of this variety of sound is found in the Lyrebird, an Australian species.  This performer will mimic as many different bird calls and sounds as he can in order to attract a mate. 

Superb Lyrebirds have an amazing vocal range

A popular video featuring David Attenborough captures this array of vocal gymnastics…and more.  The Lyrebird caught on camera in that trending video also mimics the sounds of camera shutters, car alarms, and even chainsaws.  Yes, birds can mimic sounds produced by machinery; however, most birds that can do so have been raised in captivity.  The Lyrebird in Attenborough’s video did, in fact, belong to a zoo.  Not that this makes the Lyrebird any less impressive.  Along with the chirps and whistles of other birds, Lyrebirds can also mimic the whooping chatter of a Laughing Kookaburra with startling skill.

Since learning human speech, or any other sound, requires lots of repetition, you are unlikely to encounter a wild crow or raven that will greet you in the same manner as the birds at the Sanctuary.  Unless you’re willing to spend every morning repeating the same thing to that noisy crow in your front yard, you’ll have to stop by the World Bird Sanctuary for your fix of talking birds; however, leave the crows’ tongues alone please.

Submitted by JoHanna Burton, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist

Corvid beauty tips

Sometimes when I am chatting with the corvids, I ask how they get their feathers so glossy and shiny. Surely they spend a fortune on product! They all look a little bit sorry for me as they explain that their beauty is natural. All they need is a bath.

I've never known birds that take as much pleasure in bathing as crows and ravens. The moment I've refilled the water bowls, they dive right in! After their bath, they spend hours preening and grooming their feathers until they gleam.

Here you seen Einstein the pied crow and Little Guy the white naped raven just after bathing:



And the results:


Wow!

Hello (again) Othello

Othello the crow has returned home to the sanctuary and would like to say hi to his fans:

Pied crow vs. milk carton

The milk carton enrichment experiment wasn't just for the ravens. In fact, Cherry the pied crow seems to have had more fun with the milk carton than anyone else. She was recently observed making different sounds into the milk carton, presumably to hear the difference.

This video shows her right after I first gave her the carton. I put a few mealworms in just to make it interesting. Cherry often takes donation or recycles visitors' soda cans at our education programs. She's a cool bird and very affectionate.

Cherry Enrichment

Here is our African Pied Crow Cherry, working on getting meal worms out of a milk carton. Enrichment is crucial to the mental and physical health of captive animals, and all of our birds enjoy a new game.

Hello Othello!

This is another video from our bi-monthly weigh-day. Othello the African pied crow says hello just before Einstein grabs the spotlight.

How they grow...African Pied Crow

Family Corvidae, Corvus albus

This crow is about the same size as our American Crow, but their black and white coloring makes them distinct. Like their raven relatives, pied crows can be very playful. An acquaintance from Zimbabwe once told me that he enjoyed watching them slide down windshields in a parking lot where he worked. They would fly back up to the top of the car and do it again and again. Pied crows love attention and make wonderful education birds. They can learn to mimic up to 100 human words and 5 phrases!

The following pictures record the growth of a pied crow from 7 to 28 days. They were taken by our friend and photographer Gay Schroer. For me, they fall into the “so ugly they are cute” category.

7 days

22 days

28 days

28 days

A crow I know...

I’d like to introduce you to Einstein! Einstein is an African pied crow, Family Corvidae, Corvus albus. He’s a very sweet bird who likes to say “hello” and make knock-knock sounds. African pied crows are about the same size as our American crows and can learn to mimic around 100 words and five phrases. In our education programs, Einstein will take recycleables (paper, plastic, and aluminum) from our audience members and place them in a recyle bin. He’s very fond of grapes.