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

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

#21

Post by fibonachos » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 3:51 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.

There was (mockingbird?) near my home in the 90s who did a solid imitation of the multi- tone aftermarket car alarm that was common around that time. I recall being annoyed by it at the time since it often happened in the early morning hours. I kind of miss it now (or I’m just a little nostalgic for the sound of the time period).

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

#22

Post by technothrasher » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

fibonachos wrote: post #21

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.

There was (mockingbird?) near my home in the 90s who did a solid imitation of the multi- tone aftermarket car alarm that was common around that time. I recall being annoyed by it at the time since it often happened in the early morning hours. I kind of miss it now (or I’m just a little nostalgic for the sound of the time period).

When I was a teenager in the late 80's, I ran a BBS and a mockingbird outside my window learned the "paging sysop" beeps the computer made. It was very confusing, and like your bird, it was annoying because it was usually in the early morning hours.

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

#23

Post by toast0 » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 4:49 PM UTC

fibonachos wrote: post #21

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.

There was (mockingbird?) near my home in the 90s who did a solid imitation of the multi- tone aftermarket car alarm that was common around that time. I recall being annoyed by it at the time since it often happened in the early morning hours. I kind of miss it now (or I’m just a little nostalgic for the sound of the time period).

The mockingbirds where I lived from 2009-2018 only sang the song of the car alarm. The original species became rarer and rarer, and generational distortion snuck in. It was definitely interesting comparing which parts of the alarm were mocked well and which were outside the range.

Otoh, really annoying on hot nights when everyone had their windows open and the damn things keep chirping all night. A neighbor found if you yell shut up really loud, you'll get about 5 minutes of peace.

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

#24

Post by MrMcCall » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 6:09 PM UTC

anenefan wrote: post #15

MrMcCall wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 grea…

> I did wonder if it was pure coincidence.

"There are no coincidences." --Master Oogway

"There seems no plan because it is all plan." --CS Lewis

> that I twigged there was more to its behaviour.

:-)

Peace be with you, friend.

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

#25

Post by ckjellqv » Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #19

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.

So your answer to the question is "because they can?" I don't think we needed the LLM age for us to be able to say that. That is to say, I think the article is giving the birds a bit more agency than next-token prediction engines.