Do Birds Speak In Codes?
By: NDTVNewsDesk
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New research suggests birds communicate using principles of efficient coding.
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This is similar to human language, by using shorter calls for frequent messages and longer calls for less common ones.
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This isn't code in the sense of ciphers, but a form of linguistic coding where efficiency and predictability shape their communication.
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Scientists analysed birdsong to find these patterns, discovering that the most frequent birdsong phrases are shorter.
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They follow the same principles of brevity that apply to human speech, like the use of words such as "the" or "and".
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According to BBC Earth, the researchers applied "brevity law" to birdsong using a computational tool named ZLAvian.
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They analysed over 600 recordings from seven species across 11 bird populations.
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This breakthrough supports the theory that brevity and efficiency in communication may be a universal linguistic principle.
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