Page 51 - The Miracle Of Talking Birds

49

o
m
h

e

M
r
y
e
i
r
s
n
i
S

u
p
r
g
f

T The Surprising Memory of Birds
o
B
d
s
i
r
Their skills in imitating sound are directly related to birds’ abil-
ity to recall sounds they have heard. According to the research team
at the Free University in Berlin, when conducting research into how
a bird imitates sound, the following points should be addressed:
Vocal imitation which is so common in human beings is quite
rare in nonhuman organisms. Until now, it has been docu-
mented only for a few families of birds (e. g. oscine birds and
parrots) and some mammals (e. g. marine mammals and bats).
As an inquiry into this accomplishment we study the proper-
ties of memory mechanisms that allow individuals to first ac-
quire, then memorize and finally vocally imitate a set of audi-
torily experienced signal patterns. Our biological model is the
Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos). Males of this
species are able to auditorily learn and accu-
rately reproduce more than 200 different
types of songs. Thus, a central aim of
our study is to uncover how these
birds successfully cope with complex
learning tasks, and how they effec-
tively retrieve their memory-stored
data later in life… 18
Birds’ have memories of surprisingly
high capacity. Not only do they recall the
exact location of where they spend their
summers and winters, but also the
precise location of various food-
stuffs they have stored for use in
the winter and of plants whose
nectar they have drunk. In fact,
some birds have longer-term