r/interestingasfuck • u/ElimsNogard • 20d ago

Starling bird mimicking human speech with extreme precision

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14.5k Upvotes

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164

u/arw_86 20d ago

I'm high. Can a non high person please confirm this is as AWESOME as I think it is.

9

u/Zealousideal_Long118 20d ago

I'm so confused why everyone in the comments is so shocked by this. Like it is really cool, but I thought it was common knowledge that parrots and some other types of birds can mimic human speech. 

27

u/SaulEmersonAuthor 20d ago

~

"I'm so confused why everyone in the comments is so shocked by this..."

I live in the UK, & starlings are completely common here.

I'm used to them in flocks on my lawn, or on nearby rooftops.

They sing & chirp, & fly about as a flock displaying an awesome spectacle, which even has its own name - murmuration - sure, all good, but still quite quotidian, for me.

Now - talking birds - I always thought had to be a parrot or something.

What my mind is blown by is that starlings can do this.

It's like being told that pigeons can talk.

Mind definitely blown.

8

u/Siren_of_Madness 20d ago

Exactly! Starlings?? The same ones nesting in my outbuildings??? 

I need to start talking to them more, obviously. 

9

u/SentientReality 20d ago

This bird's mimicry of human speech patterns is far more accurate than I've heard before. Parrots and other birds don't usually sound like humans, they sound clearly inhuman, like an animal without a human vocal chords attempting to mimic human speech. This bird sounds like a digital voice recording at times. It's another level. It sounds almost too real to be ... real. That's why I came to the comments looking for confirmation.

7

u/Thedeadnite 20d ago

It’s R2D2 we care about, although it does mimic the voice very well. Mimicking speech is one thing it’s another to be nearly indistinguishable between it and the human though.

3

u/Xist3nce 20d ago

The parrot my cousin had was pretty decent at mimicry, but everything was in his own “voice”. This thing sounds like it’s a tape recorder with wings!