Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Birds’ intruder alert hints at how sounds took on new meanings

Diverse bird species recognize the same vocalization to rally neighbours against invading cuckoos. The finding plays into a broader debate about the emergence of language.
By
  1. Holly Smith
Small green and white common tailorbird on a branch, feeding an insect to a much larger, mottled brown plaintive cuckoo.

Credit: Getty

The relationship between sounds in words and their meaning is thought to be mostly arbitrary. Some linguists and behavioural ecologists, however, argue that the instinctive vocal responses that humans and animals make — a cry or laugh, for instance — served as the foundation on which language evolved, as new meanings became associated with them. Feeney and colleagues explore learnt sound–meaning associations in birds (W. E. Feeney et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/p78m; 2025).

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 646, 554 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03328-6

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links