Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#11

Post by hnlmorg » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 1:30 PM UTC

MrMcCall wrote: post #4

Here's the one that blows my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ It's from one of (our honorary Uncle) David Attenborough's nature series, where a Lyre bird is imitating an analog professional camera, a car alarm, and a chainsaw. If I hadn't watched it well over a decade ago, I don't think I'd believe it. Search YT for 'lyre bird imitating chainsaw' for a choice of vids.

I’ve seen that video maybe a dozen times since it was first aired and I’m still constantly flabbergasted each time.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#12

Post by ddtaylor » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

I haven't gone back in a few years to read some of the puzzles and I for sure "capped out" at some point, possibly just out of fatigue, but the book To Mock a Mockingbird kind of themes all of it's problems around how birds have different songs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Mock_a_Mockingbird

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#13

Post by HankB99 » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 2:57 PM UTC

> Blue Jays imitate the calls of Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, and Broad-winged hawks, for example.

I've seen this. We've had Red Tailed Hawks nesting in the area and used to hear them calling every morning. (True fact: Most "eagle calls" in media are Red Tailed Hawks because they sound more intimidating than the chittering from Bald Eagles.) One morning I was out and about and heard the "hawk" in the tree directly above me. I stopped and searched through the branches which were just starting to develop leaves. A bird the size of a hawk should have been easy to spot. After searching for a minute or two, I spotted a Blue Jay hopping around the lower branches.

> The function of these imitations is unknown.

I have a couple guesses.

* Blue Jays being jerks. * Blue Jays mob hawks and maybe just wanted to find one in the area. * Blue Jays just wanted to see what - if anything - would react to the potential presence of the hawk in the area.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#14

Post by HankB99 » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 2:59 PM UTC

MrMcCall wrote: post #4

Here's the one that blows my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ It's from one of (our honorary Uncle) David Attenborough's nature series, where a Lyre bird is imitating an analog professional camera, a car alarm, and a chainsaw. If I hadn't watched it well over a decade ago, I don't think I'd believe it. Search YT for 'lyre bird imitating chainsaw' for a choice of vids.

As a teen I worked in a pet shop and a Mynah - the shop pet - had learned to imitate a squeaky hamster wheel.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#15

Post by anenefan » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:19 PM UTC

MrMcCall wrote: post #5

anenefan wrote: post #2

Sometimes it's just fascinating thinking about the evolution of why some birds mimic - for instance one could spend a lifetime every time a flock [1] Sulphur crested cockatoos that have decided to roost and feed nearby listening to them screech for hours and not hear any other variation of trying to mimic other bird species - but infrequently I and others will note a few when perhaps they've noted us, try to imitate…

It's so cool for you to have been blessed like this. You may very well enjoy David Attenborough's series "The Life of Birds". I know my family has. Of course, all of DA's nature series are fantastic. "The Private Life of Plants" (6 parts) is one of my favs, but they're all great. Here's the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_Collection The only one I didn't know about (until now) is "Life in the Freezer". H…

Having not seen a live lyrebird, (they're not in Northern Queensland) watching and listening to a bird in person that could mimic equally as well some of the various birds about was something - watching the bird finally succeed in scaring off the flock occupying the tree - I did wonder if it was pure coincidence. I should point out that prior to its success, the bird sat in the tree for a time going through it's great number of different bird calls, and hopping between branches towards the flock from time to time and being chased back out of the tree only to return with another volley of calls. These loop of calls would sometimes include the whistling kite but the flock I think sensed there was no kite sitting in the branches where this bird was sitting and didn't react. At the time I just thought, oh what a strange song bird flitting about advertising its presence and it wasn't until the bird flew way above the tree and down though the top branches with the whistling kite call that I twigged there was more to its behaviour.

David Attenborough's tv series I enjoy if I've got time to watch. I do believe recalling watching the same segment with the lyrebird imitating the camera.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#16

Post by card_zero » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:26 PM UTC

HankB99 wrote: post #13

> Blue Jays imitate the calls of Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, and Broad-winged hawks, for example. I've seen this. We've had Red Tailed Hawks nesting in the area and used to hear them calling every morning. (True fact: Most "eagle calls" in media are Red Tailed Hawks because they sound more intimidating than the chittering from Bald Eagles.) One morning I was out and about and heard the "hawk" in the tree directly abo…

I heard a blue jay mimic a golf trolley's squeaky wheel. They will mimic any sound, it's a sex thing, it doesn't have to be complicated.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#17

Post by ilamont » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

The Onion did a spoof about this, the “Montana Merkle,”whose human-like call has resulted in it almost becoming extinct: https://youtu.be/5D2VdaM8OcM?si=52J07cq3W_-RWPp8

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#18

Post by card_zero » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

MrMcCall wrote: post #4

Here's the one that blows my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ It's from one of (our honorary Uncle) David Attenborough's nature series, where a Lyre bird is imitating an analog professional camera, a car alarm, and a chainsaw. If I hadn't watched it well over a decade ago, I don't think I'd believe it. Search YT for 'lyre bird imitating chainsaw' for a choice of vids.

I'm trying to remember the bird that stands guard for another species, and mimics their alarm calls on seeing predators, but when hungry throws in an occasional lie so that they drop their food and run. Something African I think.

Edit: I was thinking of the Fork-tailed Drongo, which does this to meerkats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork-tailed_drongo#Kleptoparas...

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#19

Post by dboreham » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

A few years into the LLM age and we're still asking questions like this?

Just like language in humans, the birds' brains are ingesting training data and emitting similar output data, when they discover that they have the necessary I/O devices to do so.

Re: Why do some birds mimic the sounds of other species?

#20

Post by Mountain_Skies » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

MrMcCall wrote: post #4

Here's the one that blows my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ It's from one of (our honorary Uncle) David Attenborough's nature series, where a Lyre bird is imitating an analog professional camera, a car alarm, and a chainsaw. If I hadn't watched it well over a decade ago, I don't think I'd believe it. Search YT for 'lyre bird imitating chainsaw' for a choice of vids.

A bird sanctuary I went to in the Amazon had a bunch of parrots, macaws, and similar birds that had been seized from various businesses and criminals. Some of them had been taught to recite a bar's drink specials or to swear. I was quite the odd cacophony of calls.