4 ms·

Do birds have accents? the regional differences in birdsong

74 points by bryanrasmussen 12d ago

Zestymarble45 12d ago
[dead]
317070 12d ago
I've been birdspotting for the last year (in the UK, there is an addictive app called birdex, which is basically like a pokedex in the pokemon game, except it does birds). I am proud to report that I've observed 110 species this year. The last one was this weekend, where apparently meadow pipits are traveling across London parks while they're heading south. It's not just regional dialects and individual birds, I am noticing that the time of the year also matters. Tits sound different in spring, summer and autumn, and so do e.g. robins. It's a hobby I can recommend to everyone. Whenever I am outside now, I can listen for any faint sound and then make a mental note of all the birds I observed.
swozey 12d ago
I didn't grow up near ravens but I'm sure I've encountered them in my life plenty of times, except now I'm traveling around Oregon/Washington forests and I can't tell you how many times I thought some drunk people were arguing or screaming in camp and it was just the ravens. Just the strangest screeching or whatever you want to call it. Actually, thinking about this, I was in Moab for a year with ravens and never heard anything like what I hear in the PNW from them. Also didn't know Stellar Jays were a thing until here, coolest looking bird I've seen. Like punk rock blue jays. Gemini has been absolutely terrible as a "what bird? [bird pic]" tool. I wonder how many bird names I've "learned" wrong from it. It thinks a lot of what I send it are canada geese.
- bethekidyouwant 12d ago
  Use seek to identify plants/animals
- tlavoie 12d ago
  Try an app called Merlin, from Cornell University. It's excellent, and basically runs against a regional machine learning model to identify birds.
initramfs 12d ago
ofa coursa birds have-a accents!
- AdamN 12d ago
  Funny enough you're doing an Italian/Brooklyn accent but the example I was thinking of is birds that mimicked the car alarms in Brooklyn in the 90s/00s and I'm wondering if they still do that now that alarms aren't as common.
  - initramfs 12d ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNG-xrnaSE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNG-xrnaSE4 i remember
sdenton4 12d ago
We used yellowhammer dialects as one of the tasks in the OG paper on building 'custom' models for species classification on top of embeddings from bird song classifiers: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49989-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49989-z It was the hardest task (alongside godwit call types, bat species (pitch shifted into the audible range), Marine mammal species, and frog species), but still worked!
Kim_Bruning 12d ago
I really appreciate seeing more ethology stories on HN!
beardyw 12d ago
Wood pigeon s don't say "my toe bleeds Be-tty". They say "I know I'm pretty". That's according to Chris Packham so it's true.
- renyicircle 12d ago
  Sometimes they even say "I know I'm pretty, too" at the end.
NooneAtAll3 12d ago
something I wondered for a while - do DOGS have accents? is body language of indian dog the same as brazilian dog?
- krapp 12d ago
  We do know that whales have distinct regional dialects. I would assume that any animal complex enough to have aspects of their behavior not entirely determined by genetics (in other words, taught by parents or peers) exhibits regionally distinct behavior. So yes, dogs probably have "accents." Naively, it seems like it would be weird if they didn't.
nightshift1 12d ago
Also interesting: https://gizmodo.com/a-viral-new-bird-song-in-canada-is-causing-sparrows-t-1844245103 https://gizmodo.com/a-viral-new-bird-song-in-canada-is-causi... White-throated sparrows across Canada are rapidly replacing their classic three-note song ending with a new two-note version, which originated in British Columbia and has spread eastward over the past two decades.
dkga 12d ago
Beautiful. An interesting tidbit some here may like: for some birds, their songs carry over genetically. As a result, there are no dialects in the same sense as described in this page. The most famous example (at least in the Americas) is Pitangus sulphuratus (known in Brazil as "bem-te-vi"). This bird is present from Southern US until Southern Argentina, and has virtually the same song all over. In fact, I know I arrived in Brazil when I get out of the airport, anyone in the country, and catch a (sometimes clear, sometimes faint) "bem-te-vi, bem-te-vi" song.
hackersnooze1 12d ago
Sometimes a bird species will get split into subspecies based purely on differences in song. There is a big movement to reorganize a lot of taxonomic clades based on genetics rather than phenotypical traits. I wonder if that will change this.

[dead]

I've been birdspotting for the last year (in the UK, there is an addictive app called birdex, which is basically like a pokedex in the pokemon game, except it does birds). I am proud to report that I've observed 110 species this year. The last one was this weekend, where apparently meadow pipits are traveling across London parks while they're heading south. It's not just regional dialects and individual birds, I am noticing that the time of the year also matters. Tits sound different in spring, summer and autumn, and so do e.g. robins. It's a hobby I can recommend to everyone. Whenever I am outside now, I can listen for any faint sound and then make a mental note of all the birds I observed.

swozey 12d ago

I didn't grow up near ravens but I'm sure I've encountered them in my life plenty of times, except now I'm traveling around Oregon/Washington forests and I can't tell you how many times I thought some drunk people were arguing or screaming in camp and it was just the ravens. Just the strangest screeching or whatever you want to call it. Actually, thinking about this, I was in Moab for a year with ravens and never heard anything like what I hear in the PNW from them. Also didn't know Stellar Jays were a thing until here, coolest looking bird I've seen. Like punk rock blue jays. Gemini has been absolutely terrible as a "what bird? [bird pic]" tool. I wonder how many bird names I've "learned" wrong from it. It thinks a lot of what I send it are canada geese.

bethekidyouwant 12d ago
Use seek to identify plants/animals
tlavoie 12d ago
Try an app called Merlin, from Cornell University. It's excellent, and basically runs against a regional machine learning model to identify birds.

initramfs 12d ago

ofa coursa birds have-a accents!

AdamN 12d ago
Funny enough you're doing an Italian/Brooklyn accent but the example I was thinking of is birds that mimicked the car alarms in Brooklyn in the 90s/00s and I'm wondering if they still do that now that alarms aren't as common.
- initramfs 12d ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNG-xrnaSE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNG-xrnaSE4 i remember

sdenton4 12d ago

We used yellowhammer dialects as one of the tasks in the OG paper on building 'custom' models for species classification on top of embeddings from bird song classifiers: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49989-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49989-z It was the hardest task (alongside godwit call types, bat species (pitch shifted into the audible range), Marine mammal species, and frog species), but still worked!

Kim_Bruning 12d ago

I really appreciate seeing more ethology stories on HN!

beardyw 12d ago

Wood pigeon s don't say "my toe bleeds Be-tty". They say "I know I'm pretty". That's according to Chris Packham so it's true.

renyicircle 12d ago
Sometimes they even say "I know I'm pretty, too" at the end.

NooneAtAll3 12d ago

something I wondered for a while - do DOGS have accents? is body language of indian dog the same as brazilian dog?

krapp 12d ago
We do know that whales have distinct regional dialects. I would assume that any animal complex enough to have aspects of their behavior not entirely determined by genetics (in other words, taught by parents or peers) exhibits regionally distinct behavior. So yes, dogs probably have "accents." Naively, it seems like it would be weird if they didn't.

nightshift1 12d ago

Also interesting: https://gizmodo.com/a-viral-new-bird-song-in-canada-is-causing-sparrows-t-1844245103 https://gizmodo.com/a-viral-new-bird-song-in-canada-is-causi... White-throated sparrows across Canada are rapidly replacing their classic three-note song ending with a new two-note version, which originated in British Columbia and has spread eastward over the past two decades.

dkga 12d ago

Beautiful. An interesting tidbit some here may like: for some birds, their songs carry over genetically. As a result, there are no dialects in the same sense as described in this page. The most famous example (at least in the Americas) is Pitangus sulphuratus (known in Brazil as "bem-te-vi"). This bird is present from Southern US until Southern Argentina, and has virtually the same song all over. In fact, I know I arrived in Brazil when I get out of the airport, anyone in the country, and catch a (sometimes clear, sometimes faint) "bem-te-vi, bem-te-vi" song.

hackersnooze1 12d ago

Sometimes a bird species will get split into subspecies based purely on differences in song. There is a big movement to reorganize a lot of taxonomic clades based on genetics rather than phenotypical traits. I wonder if that will change this.