Songbirds on a jetplane. by Barbie Kunkelova

Songbirds can not only sing, as their name indicates, they are also very observant and possess a great sense of locality. I heard of one kind called lyrebird. It lives as a wild animal in Australia and it is knackier than parrots. You can see a likeness of it also on the Australian hundred-dollar bill. It can imitate car alarms, clock alarms, trains, various animals; it almost makes you want to move away from Australia & I mean who would want to listen to a bird mimicking an alarm tune at 3 in the morning? In other places, the songbirds (like hummingbirds, blackbirds, parrots, warblers, berry or flowerpeckers, pipits, sunbirds, wrens, nuthatches or sparrows) are more tender for they don't memorize the unpleasant city sounds. Therefore they are well known for their songs melodious to the human ear (maybe with the exception of crows' croaking, but nobody's perfect). They do not only call (like other bird species do in case of emergency) or repeat themselves (as the mean, monotonous cuckoo does), they actually sing. These animals are very territorial; they communicate the identity and whereabouts of each individual to the others and also signal their sexual intentions. A recent study, where many sparrows were "packed" and "shipped" via jets 3,700 km away from their winter nesting areas (from the West to the East coast), showed that these animals can very quickly figure out in which direction to fly… and they will fly until they get there. It took them less than three days to get back home, to Seattle. Sparrows can create a tiny map inside their head no matter where they are, abstractedly from the fact that they've never been there before. Such tiny animals with even tinier brains. Mother Nature is a very creative …creator.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071105/tsc-science-us-research-bird-migration-e123fef_1.html

by Barbie Kunkelova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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