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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Migrating Birds Understand "Foreign Languages"


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Scientists studying the ability of migrating birds to learn and understand the common calls of unrelated bird species observed Kentucky warblers—such as the one pictured above—which breed in North America and winter in Central America.

Published in July of 2008, the study findings suggest that migrant birds can extract detailed information from the antipredator calls made by other species they encounter during their travels.

Photograph by Joe Nocera/Queens University