European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are very accomplished mimics and can reproduce a wide variety of sounds, including human speech. Their ability to imitate sounds helps them communicate and defend their territory. But can they actually mimic human speech and language like parrots can? Let’s take a closer look at the evidence.
Mimicry in songbirds
Several songbird species are excellent mimics, including mockingbirds, mynas, and lyrebirds. However, starlings have proven to be particularly adept vocal mimics. They incorporate sounds from their environment into their songs and calls, including other bird songs, car alarms, telephone rings, and even human speech. The starling’s syrinx (vocal organ) gives it excellent control over the nuances of sound production allowing it to closely imitate what it hears.
Starlings prefer to mimic novel, complex sounds that catch their interest. Human speech, with its wide variation in tone, pitch, and rhythm, provides engaging new sounds for starlings to reproduce. Pet starlings often learn to mimic household sounds like doorbells, running water, or microwave beeps. Starlings in the wild incorporate snippets of human speech and music into their vocalizations.
Documented cases of speech mimicry
There are many anecdotal reports of starlings mimicking human speech and language. However, scientific studies on vocal mimicry in birds have focused more on parrots and mynas. Still, there is some research documenting the level of speech mimicry in starlings.
In one laboratory study, starling chicks were hand-reared and exposed to human speech during development. The birds incorporated elements of human language into their songs as adults, including phonemes, whistles, clicks, and playbacks of human voice recordings. However, their renditions were not as clear or accurate as those of parrots. The researchers concluded starlings are better at mimicking simple sounds compared to complex speech patterns.
Other research found starlings can tell human voices apart and preferentially learn vocalizations from female humans. This suggests they can differentiate between voices and intentionally mimic preferred sounds and patterns. One pet starling learned to clearly say “What are you doing?” after frequently hearing this phrase from his human caretaker.
Famed American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky posited that starlings lack a cognitive “recursion” capacity needed for human-like language processing. Yet other experts counter that starlings and parrots may have similar language mimicry abilities, just weaker speech production mechanics.
Advantages of vocal mimicry
For starlings, the ability to mimic sounds serves several valuable purposes:
- Finding mates – Male starlings incorporate learned songs and calls into their breeding displays to attract females.
- Defending territories – Unique sounds discourage intrusion from competing birds.
- Deceiving prey – Mimicking other birds or animal sounds can fool prey.
- Bonding with humans – Many pet starlings learn to mimic their owners. The shared vocal experience helps social bonding.
Young birds rely on mimicry to learn the vocalizations of their species. Starlings deprived of auditory input as chicks will not develop normal communication skills. The wider the variety of sounds mimicked, the more interesting songs and contact calls the starlings can perform to attract mates in future breeding seasons.
Limitations of starling mimicry
So why are starlings not considered expert speech mimics like parrots or mynas? There are a few key limitations to their mimicry ability:
- Anatomical constraints – The starling syrinx is impressive but not as robust as a parrot’s. Parrots have more vocal control over timbre, resonance, and fine sound modifications.
- Cognitive differences – Parrots and corvids (crows/ravens) exhibit higher reasoning and problem-solving compared to starlings in cognitive tests. This may enable greater language comprehension and mimicry.
- No neoteny – Unlike parrots, starlings lack neoteny, meaning birds do not mimic sounds heard in juvenile stages into adulthood. Parrot fledglings stay receptive to learning new sounds much longer.
- Limited memory – Starlings can memorize long song sequences but may lack the long-term auditory memory capabilities that enable parrots to mimic lengthy words and phrases.
While starlings can skillfully reproduce various human speech sounds, they lack the neural complexity to fully comprehend and contextually apply complex language principles. Their mimicked speech is more a creative acoustic display, not evidence of advanced linguistic ability.
Recordings of starling speech mimicry
Here are some audio examples that demonstrate the extent of starlings’ ability to mimic human vocalizations:
Wolf whistle
In this recording, a captive male starling perfectly mimics a human whistling a melodic tune and even adds a wolf whistle at the end:
“How are you?”
This pet starling learned to clearly say the phrase “How are you?” after hearing it repeatedly from his owner:
Laughter
Starlings can mimic uncanny human-like laughter once exposed to people laughing. This starling convincingly copies a child’s giggle:
As you can hear from these samples, starlings can reproduce very convincing versions of human whistles, speech patterns, and emotional vocalizations like laughter when they have enough exposure. However, starlings likely don’t understand the actual semantic meaning behind the words and phrases they mimic.
Conclusion
In summary, European starlings are talented mimics capable of learning a diverse range of sounds that interest them, including elements of human speech and language. Cases of pet starlings learning to clearly mimic phrases or emotional sounds like laughter demonstrate their vocal capabilities. However, starlings appear to lack the neurocognitive capacities required for advanced language comprehension and contextual application. So a starling may be able to clearly whistle or say “How are you?” but doesn’t understand the meaning or syntax behind these sounds. Their mimicry abilities serve important functions related to mating, territorial defense and social bonding. So while starlings may impress with well-mimicked snippets of human vocalizations, they are not capable of mastering speech and language to the extent displayed by some parrots and corvids.
