How Do They Know the Difference?

[SwampPrincessChick]

Either will alert the flock here. Recently a young vulture flew overhead, and everyone hid that day. Big wing span, must be danger!
Mary

Even birds with small wingspans will startle mine, I suppose because they fly so fast. And Polish are naturally very flighty, and they are the main ones who act like they are going to get killed when even a woodpecker flies over.

 

[K0k0shka]

A sound coming out of a phone sounds very different from the same sound coming straight from the source. Can you fool any human that a sound of your voice coming out of a phone is the same thing as you standing next to them talking? Everybody can tell it's coming from a phone - the phone's speaker distorts the sound and the quality is just different. The same goes for animals. It just doesn't sound like the real thing, and they can tell.

As for real hawk vs. mimicked sound, think about human accents. How well can an outsider distinguish two accents on the same language? If you are an American who speaks no other languages, can you tell a native Colombian's Spanish from somebody non-native who's fluent and speaks the language nearly perfectly? Probably not. If you spend enough time with both, you can learn to tell the "real" one, even if you still don't know what they're saying. And to the average American they will still sound the exact same. But would it be so surprising that a Venezuelan speaker can tell them apart without even trying? They have a leg up on you already - they're in the in-group and better positioned to hear the nuances. You are not. Same with your example - chickens are birds, who are naturally attuned to hear and distinguish other birds' calls and thus already better than you by default. You can learn to tell some sounds from others, through practice, but you are starting from an outsider's position. So of course they'd be better at this.

 

[ElfenLied89]

I would think birds use visual clues as well. So if they look toward the sound and see you with a phone or a blue jay they are far less likely to scram.

"Is that a hawk?!"
"Nah. The giant bald thing has their toy out making sounds again"
"Oh. Phew. Okay. They need a new hobby. Always on it. They should try worms. That's a good hobby to have"


Don't mind me.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

"Is that a hawk?!"
"Nah. The giant bald thing has their toy out making sounds again"
"Oh. Phew. Okay. They need a new hobby. Always on it. They should try worms. That's a good hobby to have"


Don't mind me.

Accurate discussion between my chickens.

 

[ElfenLied89]

Accurate discussion between my chickens.

Pretty sure they talk alot of smack just can't understand them.

 

[cundare]

Scientific American published an interesting article a few years ago, maybe just pre-pandemic, about the way that birds hear. I think anybody in this thread would find it as fascinating as I do. If nobody can find it, I'll try to dig up my photocopy for date, title, etc.

The upshot was that birds don't hear the higher-level patterns in sounds -- playing a sound backwards doesn't phase them, but changing the key of a piece of music makes the music sound completely different to them -- but they do hear tiny changes in timbre with much more precision than humans. Worth seeking out.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Scientific American published an interesting article a few years ago, maybe just pre-pandemic, about the way that birds hear. I think anybody in this thread would find it as fascinating as I do. If nobody can find it, I'll try to dig up my photocopy for date, title, etc.

The upshot was that birds don't hear the higher-level patterns in sounds -- playing a sound backwards doesn't phase them, but changing the key of a piece of music makes the music sound completely different to them -- but they do hear tiny changes in timbre with much more precision than humans. Worth seeking out.

That is interesting, I will attempt to find it!

 

[cundare]

I found it. May 2022 issue, title "What Birds Really Listen for in Birdsong (It’s Not What You Think)", author Adam Fishbein, subtitle "Birds seem to pay more attention to fine acoustic details that humans cannot hear than to the melodies that captivate us."


https://www.scientificamerican.com/...isten-for-in-birdsong-its-not-what-you-think/

 

[Winderdear]

I found it. May 2022 issue, title "What Birds Really Listen for in Birdsong (It’s Not What You Think)", author Adam Fishbein, subtitle "Birds seem to pay more attention to fine acoustic details that humans cannot hear than to the melodies that captivate us."


https://www.scientificamerican.com/...isten-for-in-birdsong-its-not-what-you-think/

This is fascinating, thank you for sharing!

I sing to my chickens all the time and have since they were chicks. I have certain songs that I only sing to them for specific events, like a lullaby for bedtime, or a song to comfort them if I have to put them in a carrier and take them somewhere. They visibly calm down when they hear me singing these songs compared to other songs, and with the lullaby they go from preening or fussing about their roost position to being calm and settling in to sleep.
I knew birds were very sound oriented, but it’s interesting to think that they may be bothered if I sing in a different octave, or have a note out of key (or maybe in key, because I bet I’m usually not singing everything in tune!). I wonder if they’d recognize the lullaby if my husband sang it instead of me. Might have to try that out!

 

[cundare]

This is fascinating, thank you for sharing!

I sing to my chickens all the time and have since they were chicks. I have certain songs that I only sing to them for specific events, like a lullaby for bedtime, or a song to comfort them if I have to put them in a carrier and take them somewhere. They visibly calm down when they hear me singing these songs compared to other songs, and with the lullaby they go from preening or fussing about their roost position to being calm and settling in to sleep.
I knew birds were very sound oriented, but it’s interesting to think that they may be bothered if I sing in a different octave, or have a note out of key (or maybe in key, because I bet I’m usually not singing everything in tune!). I wonder if they’d recognize the lullaby if my husband sang it instead of me. Might have to try that out!

@Winterdear: You should read the Scientific American article. Birds don't seem to be able to tell the difference between changing keys. They hear tiny differences in timbre. So I bet they easily distinguish between different voices. This topic of research is still in its infancy, so I'd be interested in hearing about any follow-up studies.