Mimicry by Magpie & other matters

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hi Barbara,

 

Sure, this story shows the potential. However learning to copy sounds, in the situation where a baby bird is imprinted on humans and deprived of learning its own species calls from its parents, is a different process from that of an adult bird copying a random range of other bird calls and using it as subsong mimicry. Just as many parrots raised by people will copy words but wild parrots don't mimic.

 

Philip