[extropy-chat] Re: EVOLUTION: Birds learning cell ring-tones

[Dan Clemmensen]

mail at harveynewstrom.com wrote:

> Mike Lorrey writes:
>
>> Birds imitate mobile phone ring tones   DPA  
>
>
> Interesting story!
>
>> Many of the more common ring tones are themselves imitations of bird
>> calls, so the birds are in some instances mimicking another species.
>
>
> Do birds imitate other species in the wild?  If not, why would a bird 
> imitate another species heard via a cellphone but not heard directly?

Yes. The Mockingbird is so named because it imitates other birds. 
Mockingbirds (and related species such as cowbirds) imitate an 
astonishing range of sounds in addition to other birdsongs. There is a 
story from the 1800's about a mockingbird that managed to imitate the 
sound made by the saw in a sawmill hitting a nail in a log.  In the 
evening in the rural (US) south, you can often hear a mockingbird run 
through a repertoire of perhaps ten different birdsongs.