Question: Do birds have their own language?

Sean Kelly answered on 12 Nov 2014:

Thanks Michel!

They sure do! It’s not as complex as human language but they certainly can communicate with one another. For example, most birds will have an ‘alarm’ call they can use to tell others, including their mates or family members, of danger nearby. They can also use this call to let a predator (e.g. a cat or a sparrowhawk) know that they have seen them, meaning the predator no longer has the element of surprise to help it catch its dinner. Amazingly, some birds, such as Jays, have calls that are specific to the type or predator, with one call for snakes (attacking from below) and another for falcons/hawks (attacking from the air).

Birds also use a variety of ‘contact’ calls they use to keep in contact with one another. When travelling through trees or long grass, mates or family groups may not always be able to see each other so they can use these contact calls to say “where are you?”, “I’m over here” and “Follow me”. These follow me calls are particularly important for migrating birds that need to safely follow their parents in migration.

And then of course, birds have long, complex pieces of language that we call ‘songs’. While they may sound musical and happy to us, they likely don’t sound that way to other birds. It is typically only male birds that sing and when they sing they are (1) trying to attract a mate, so they’re saying “hey, come look at me, I’m good looking, fit and healthy” and (2) they’re telling other rival males to stay away from their territory.