Scientists find some parallels with human speech in cheeps and trills of birdsong. If zebra finches notice timbral features more acutely than temporal features, I wonder if certain populations of ...

When birds talk, we should listen. They may have a very important message about what is happening in our environment. Birds vocalize for a variety of reasons. In a relaxed state, they use contact ...

In our quest to find what makes humans unique, we often compare ourselves with our closest relatives: the great apes. But when it comes to understanding the quintessentially human capacity for ...

This photo provided by Jessica McLachlan shows a fairy-wren. Scientists have discovered that birds can learn to recognize alarm calls of other species, essentially by learning to eavesdrop in a second ...

THE subject of bird language has been much discussed, frequently with a good deal of heat. At one time it was fashionable to deride the notion that birds might have a language of their own. The ...

In our quest to find what makes humans unique, we often compare ourselves with our closest relatives: the great apes. But when it comes to understanding the quintessential human capacity for language, ...

WASHINGTON — For birds, understanding neighborhood gossip about an approaching hawk or brown snake can mean the difference between life or death. Wild critters are known to listen to each other for ...