Baby Birds Use Unique Passwords To Unlock Dinner
Fairy Wren Colombelli-Negrel et al., Current BiologyFemale fairy wrens teach bird embryos a special note. They can also pass on bird memes to their young. In an interesting example of prenatal learning, a species of tiny Australian songbirds teach their embryonic young a special password, which the baby birds must chirp in order to get food after they're born. The password is a single unique note the mother wren teaches them from outside the egg, according to biologists. The nestlings incorporate the note into their begging calls, and the mother recognizes the tone as her own: Password accepted. If the mother wren doesn't recognize it, the parents abandon the nest. This is an evolutionary adaptation to survive brood parasites, which in the case of the fairy wren are Australian cuckoos. Cuckoos and other brood parasitic birds lay their eggs in another bird's nest, pawning off parenting onto an unsuspecting mother. The cuckoo...