Did We Learn to Talk From the Birds?
It's for the birds. The way we learn, that is. A recent study has found that the way birds learn to sing is the same way humans learn to talk. According to newswise.com, songbirds " learn their songs during development in a manner similar to how humans learn to speak. Songbirds memorize the song of their father or tutor, then practice that song until they can produce a similar song." In much the same way babies mimic their parents and others who speak to them, and why it's so important for people to talk to babies all the time, even when you know they can't understand you. The sound of the words is what's important. “As adults, (songbirds) continue to produce this learned song, but what's interesting is that they keep it just a little bit variable” the Web site quotes Duke University, Professor Sarah Woolley . “The variability isn’t a default, it isn’t that they can’t produce a better version, they can -- in particular when they sing to a fem...