In a message dated 8/18/03 6:27:41 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Now Australian lyre birds, they CAN
imitate almost any sound!
When we lived in Florida I heard a mockingbird do a perfect imitation of a
police siren. I realized it was a bird when the noice didn't get any louder or
quieter as
Amazingly, as soon as I
started whistling *tunes* (none of the others do), it relocated itself
to my shoulder -- the better to hear you m'dear :) It seems to prefer
Bach and Haydn and Mozart to folk or popular tunes; the latter he
tolerates; the earlier make him tweet for more whenever I stop :)
Wild birds often imitate sounds they hear frequently, especially blackbirds.
When we kept our horses at a livery stable, a woman with two young children
would whistle in a particular way when she wanted them to come from whatever
they were doing, and back to her. One blackbird picked up on this
Joy writes
Many years ago, I was crossing a bridge during a multi-day bike tour when I
began to hear an alarming clank-clank-clank from the vicinity of my back
wheel. After a panic-driven search, I discovered that a bird was flying
beside the bridge at exactly my speed.
Many years ago for me
