I just read an article about scientists discovering syntax in birds. I've known chickens have syntax for over a year now. I first noticed it when I brought home the first batch of chicks the previous June. They were two days out of the egg and peeping their little heads off, like baby chicks do.
I had just gotten one out of the brooder and was holding it in my lap when my cat Thor walked into the room. The baby immediately chirped out the exact five-note phrase that the older chickens do whenever the cat approaches the pen. To verify what I was hearing, I later got another chick out and called the cat in. That chick repeated the exact phrase, with the accent on the third note, exactly as the other one had, and identical to the phrase the adults cluck out whenever a friendly animal approaches.
This phrase is identical to the phrase they vocalize when I approach the pen, except the five notes are all the same without any accent. So, I learned a year before the scientists that chickens have syntax, they speak it from birth, and we can understand what they're saying if we just listen and pay attention.
I've also noticed the chickens have vocalizations just for me, different from the words they "speak' to each other. The most obvious is the insistent chatter when I walk into the pen, like excited little children, "What did you bring us? Hope you brought food!" And little Flo has her special, very sweet, soft "caww, cawww, cawww!" When she sees me, always looking me directly in the eye when she vocalizes it. With her peepers on (to keep her from cannibalizing the feathers from her mates), she has trouble seeing straight ahead, so it's uncomfortable for her to navigate the plastic door flaps over the pop hole to the coop. If I happen to be in the pen when she needs to go inside, she stands in front of the pop hole, looking up at me and in my eyes, saying "caww, cawww, cawww!" I reach down and lift the flap, and in she pops! She communicates her needs to me!
Amazing huh? I'm sure Dr. Doolittle figured this out years ago.
