We have just spent a wonderful week in Exmouth. We rented a little holiday place right by the sea and enjoyed a very British holiday of wind and rain, fish and chips, and ice cream and sprinkles (despite the wind and rain). The kids relished in running along the seafront, searching in rockpools and finding the remains of cuttlefish. They made patterns in the sand, searched for fossils and chased each other along the beach. We came home windswept and tired every evening.
For one outing we caught the land train and sat on it for the whole hour-long trip around Exmouth. Our tour guide and train driver were fantastically friendly and more than happy to answer any questions that we had along the way. I would highly recommend this as a way to see the town. The land train took us to areas that we would never have found on our own and it was fascinating to get a deeper insight into the history of this lively town.
The beaches are dog friendly for most of the year and our canine companion enjoyed countless walks along the beach every day. We also walked her to an area that we fondly called ‘the island’ (although it’s no such thing), because it meant that we could walk her on a bit of grass and wave wildly to any of our party who had stayed behind at the house. It was upon one of these walks that we noticed something odd about the local Robin. He sang beautifully, but he sounded…different. Not like the Robin that we have at home. It was almost as if he had a regional accent…
A few days later, when we were walking along the beach, we heard a very odd sound. It was a bird call, but sounded like a tropical bird, rather than one of our native species. After much searching we identified that the sound was coming from a crow. Did this confirm our theory? Do birds have regional accents? On our return home I decided to do some research.
According to birdfact.com crows are talented mimics and ‘can learn and copy more than 100 different sounds, including human speech, calls of other birds and animals, and even mechanical sounds such as vehicles and alarms’. It also claims that ‘they can be taught to repeat up to around 100 human words and phrases they have been exposed to hearing on a regular basis’. This skill is notably impressive; but it’s thought that the canny corvids don’t actually understand what they’re saying. This means that the Crow may have been a mimicking a sound that it’s been exposed to, rather than displaying a regional accent. This still doesn’t explain the Robin.
The Natural History Museum writes that ‘accent-like differences have been reported for a number of different British birds, including blackbirds, chaffinches and great tits. And there are interesting cases abroad, too’.
According to scientists female birds may use the dialects when deciding who they want to mate with. Choosing a male who sings with a local dialect and is adapted to the neighbourhood could offer their chicks a better chance of survival.
It’s amazing to think that birds have accents, just like humans, and that they can determine where another bird is from. I’m sure that there could be huge scientific debate over this but, either way, when they all sing together they make the most beautiful music.
Green-Fingered Mum 