hello everyone,

i wrote a story about a fascinating paper that was published recently.
in this paper, the authors show that superb fairy-wren chicks learn
"song" whilst still embryos! Their mother sings a special incubation
call to her eggs only before they hatch. after hatching, these chicks
must sing this "auditory password" as their begging call in order for
the parents to feed them. Since this species is host for the brood
parasite, Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo, this vocal password allows the
parents to distinguish their chicks from parasitic bronze-cuckoo
chicks and take evasive action:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/nov/13/animalbehaviour-zoology

cheers,

--
GrrlScientist
Devorah Bennu, PhD
birdologist at gmail.com
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