First, I am as sure as I am about anything that we humans give non-human animal intelligence only the slightest amount of credit. What we don’t know dwarfs what we do know. It’s human nature that we don’t see what is right in front of us happening all the time. Science will vindicate.
I have a love-hate relationship with birdsong. For me, it’s best enjoyed as a kind of easy-listening music. But when I focus too closely on it, their songs can become torturous repetition and I begin to feel like I'm being nagged by a three-year-old who keeps asking the same question over and over again -- Or I begin to guess what the real meaning is behind the “singing”. That it’s just a frilly way of saying things like “I’m horny” and “Where is everybody?” and “Get out of my tree! That’s my tree!”.
On the other hand, I was in Costa Rica recently and was floored by the symphonic cacophony of birdsong everywhere I went (we stayed in a nature reserve in a treehouse in the rainforest. I was so taken with the sound I placed my phone outside for an hour and recorded it. I still listen to it from time to time).
But really, of all (non-human) languages, birdsong might be the sweetest.
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