Study
Vocal mimicry in songbirds
Kelley, Laura A.; Coe, Rebecca L.; Madden, Joah R.; Healy, Susan D.
Animal Behaviour, 2008
A review of vocal mimicry across songbirds, assembling which species mimic, what they copy, and the evidence for each proposed function — mate attraction, territory defence, predator deterrence, and none at all.
- Studied in
- Passeriformes
- Sample size
- review of mimicry records and proposed functions across songbirds
Mimicry is taxonomically widespread and functionally unexplained in most species that do it. Evidence for a function is reasonable in a few cases and absent in most, and several authors conclude that some mimicry is a by-product of a general capacity for vocal learning rather than an adaptation.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Mimicry should not be assumed adaptive; the default hypothesis of a by-product of vocal learning is rarely tested against.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is what lets NatureHQ answer "can ravens talk" honestly. Ravens and parrots can reproduce human speech, better in captivity than in the wild, and there is no evidence they attach meaning to the words. The capacity follows from vocal learning; the content is whatever the bird has heard a lot of. Saying a raven "talks" describes the sound and overstates everything else.
- A review; the underlying evidence is uneven and skewed towards a few famous mimics.
- Absence of demonstrated function is not demonstration of no function.
- Captive mimicry of human speech is over-represented relative to what wild birds copy.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Elsevier journalsPublished in an Elsevier journal.
doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.04.012
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-10.