How baby birds learn to sing is just like how babies learn to talk, researchers reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
Michale S. Fee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the brains of baby zebra finches as the little birds learned the unique song they would use as adults.
Zebra finches. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo) "Young birds learn their songs in a series of stages. They start out just as humans do, by babbling," Fee said, while the adult bird produces a very precise pattern of sound.
Like babies moving their limbs or trying to walk, babbling emphasizes the importance of play activities in learning.
Indeed, Fee discovered that one part of the finch brain produces song, while the babbling is controlled by a different part of the brain.
"The parallels between human and bird language are indeed striking," said psychology professor Bob McMurray of the University of Iowa.
"This work illustrates that language learning may operate by very general principles ... that can be seen across species as different as finches and humans," added McMurray.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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