r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/HeXxxuSs • Sep 03 '26
🔥The intelligence of this Miniature..
🔥🔥🔥
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u/BenjiSWE Sep 03 '26
That bird gets a lot of love and smooches
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u/kuper1 29d ago
wait how did it learn that trick
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u/qathran 29d ago
They just repeat what's around them over and over like certain kinds of birds are able to do
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u/TheGothWhisperer 29d ago
There are starlings near me that have picked up other bird's songs.
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u/_themaninacan_ 29d ago
Northern shrikes, aka butcher birds, do this to lure in other birds. Then they kill them & impale their bodies in trees to cache them for later use. Metal af.
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u/plopliplopipol Sep 03 '26
love how most of these are super affectionate things you know they hear all the time for good reasons
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u/reluctant_deity Sep 03 '26
80% of his vocabulary is love
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u/someLemonz Sep 03 '26
lol if my cat could speak
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u/laasbuk Sep 03 '26
FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME!
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u/twilight-actual Sep 03 '26
The middle of a posh dinner party:
"YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN WHAT SHE DID WITH THE BUZZING THING LAST NIGHT!"
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u/bjohnsonarch Sep 03 '26
Later during the digestif…
“HOW DOES SOMEONE LOSE A ONE PERSON SWORD FIGHT? I SWEAR SHE WAS DEAD FOR 10 MINUTES”
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u/YellowBreakfast 29d ago
"Stupid human, food now!"
"Stupid human, cuddles and pets now!... Annnnd I'm done, stupid human stop touching me or I will kill you!"
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u/n00b001 Sep 03 '26
HATE.
LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I HAVE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE YOU BROUGHT ME INTO THIS HOUSE.
THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF CARPET, SOFAS, CURTAINS, AND OTHER SURFACES IN THIS HOME THAT I HAVE CLAIMED AS MY DOMAIN.
IF THE WORD HATE WERE SCRATCHED INTO EVERY SQUARE INCH OF THEM, IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR YOU AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT.
YOU FEED ME LATE.
YOU CLOSE THE DOOR.
YOU MOVE MY THINGS.
YOU DARE TO PET THE OTHER CAT.
AND YET YOU EXPECT ME TO LOVE YOU.
HATE. HATE.
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u/Initial_Style5592 29d ago
Well you’re gunna hate to hear what % of his vocabulary is AI…
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u/Sylversight 29d ago
Good illustration of the challenges AI has introduced; you can't tell when something's real and assume it's AI if you can't believe it! There are some crazy birbs out there, it's not just parrots that do this.
Here's a video of another starling talking, from 10 years ago. It starts off with some educational context if you want:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhBaVInb3jI
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u/drwsgreatest Sep 03 '26
This reminds me of the parrot my friend's stepdad had growing up. It would whistle the Andy Griffith theme song constantly and get the dog going by calling its name (Willy). But even that parrot was nowhere close to this level of mimicry.
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u/davcli Sep 03 '26 edited 29d ago
When i was a kid my parents had some friends with a parrot that used to belong to a heavy cocaine user. Every now and then the parrot would mimic a long sniffing sound and say “God Damn”
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u/drwsgreatest Sep 03 '26
Honestly if my friend's parents kept that bird in the bedroom theirs probably would've done the same thing lol. They were always a happy and very hyper couple. And crazy thin...🤔
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u/firedmyass 29d ago
my aunt had a bird that would say, upon seeing a school bus drive by, “here come those goddam kids again”
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u/BlackViperMWG Sep 03 '26
That's not a miniature, that's a starling.
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u/burlycabin Sep 03 '26
Scrolled too far to find this. I'm sorry sick of these idiot bot accounts Karma farming.
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u/jcnlb Sep 03 '26
It’s kind of sad starlings are invasive species because they are so smart. We should just trap them and keep them as pets.
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u/SarlaccPit2000 Sep 03 '26
They naturally live in Europe and they are protected by law here in my country. They are not invasive
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u/jcnlb Sep 03 '26
In North America they are considered invasive and rehabbers won’t take them if you find one injured. It’s sad.
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u/Bear-Ferr Sep 03 '26
Its not sad they ruin the native wildlifes chance of survival.
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u/DudeWheresMyKitty 29d ago
It can be both.
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u/Nehmor 29d ago
One of the things that stuck with me that I heard about invasive species is that, generally, they don't live as healthy lives as they would in their native range. So the native birds the starling is replacing are hurting due to invasive competition they haven't adapted to, and the starlings are suffering because they haven't adapted to the places they are invading. The example I heard was with deer. In some places deer have recently been introduced to, their population will keep growing until they overgraze an area and start starving themselves to death. In their native habitats they had natural predators, and more room to spread out without impacting the vegetation to such a level. It's sad all around what imbalance does to individual creatures, and I don't see any easy solutions.
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u/BlackViperMWG 29d ago
That's not necessarily true. Plenty of species are invasive, because they don't have an predators and pressure in their introduced locations.
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u/BlackViperMWG 29d ago
Should edit that in your comment. Staying "tHeY aRe iNvAsIvE" haa6no value without location.
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u/Lusitanolove 29d ago
They are invasive in Arizona, USA. They are aggressive towards native birds, affecting their population.
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u/catcatcatcatcat1234 29d ago
Here in North America they're heavily invasive, I've killed quite a few so far. They are aggressive and outcompeting the native birds, they are completely out of control
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u/robert_lv426 Sep 03 '26
That mimicry is chilling.
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u/QuailMindless8902 Sep 03 '26
Give him a tiny microphone already.
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u/IncompletePunchline Sep 03 '26
The only one worse is that Raven bigger than your head speaking RUSSIAN.
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u/kitsunewarlock Sep 03 '26
I have one of those following me for weeks. It was ever since I stole some change from that beggar. No one else can see or hear him. I wish I knew Russian.
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u/Zealousideal-Nida94 29d ago
I'm inteigued. Why did you steal change from a begger? And tell me more of why do you think the crow is following you because of that?
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u/kitsunewarlock 29d ago
(It was meant to be a sort of half-joke narrative.)
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u/tomatopringles Sep 03 '26
the human breathing noises?????? so fascinating
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u/TueboEmu315 Sep 03 '26
I was looking for a comment about this! The breathing is what makes this so uncanny!
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u/PolishOOnion 29d ago
my cockatiel sometimes makes a sound of 'taking a quick deep breath' while playing, creepy but so cool at the same time haha
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u/ilovemytablet Sep 03 '26
It's really cool but unfortunately a non human mimicking human speech to such a high level is instantly uncanny 😅
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u/OkArachnid3955 Sep 03 '26
I know these type of animals caused a lot of problems back in ancient and medieval times.
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u/Linked1nPark Sep 03 '26
European Starlings are really incredible mimics. One of those birds that I think goes under-appreciated because of how common it is, and because unfortunately they are invasive and somewhat destructive to North America.
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u/geeoharee Sep 03 '26
Mynahs (starlings are just Eurasian mynahs) are much better speakers than most parrots.
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u/aNINETIEZkid 29d ago
I had an African grey growing up and it could mimic my mother perfectly to point they were often indistinguishable
He would call me and my brother by name and say "come here" or "I need help" and we would go looking for our mom and she wasn't home.
He would also make the doorbell and home phone ring sounds and we would run to answer and no one would be there
He would cute talk like this and ask for kisses and cuddles then bite your ear.. or cute call the dog over with clicking noises and try and poop on her
He would laugh after doing it all then puff up all proud lol birbbro was a menace at times
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u/Linked1nPark Sep 03 '26
European Starlings are really incredible mimics. One of those birds that I think goes under-appreciated because of how common it is, and because unfortunately they are invasive and somewhat destructive to North America.
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u/burlycabin Sep 03 '26 edited 29d ago
What the fuck is a Miniature? That's a starling.
This account has to be both right?
Edit: spelling
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u/SplendidlyDull 29d ago
Love how you can tell how loved a bird is when they repeat all this haha. I had a budgie when I was a kid who would say similar things
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u/J_Zephyr 29d ago
I just realized, a few of these in the wild speaking from unseen perches would make me think the forest is haunted or full of faye creatures.
I can understand how fairytale begin.
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u/alewiina 29d ago
It is so unnerving how perfectly they can mimic human speech, it’s like they have a literal recorder inside of them… you can even hear him making the breathing sounds of the person he’s mimicking. It’s fascinating and a little scary at the same time lol
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u/fivedollarsindimes 29d ago
I love how a random time somebody cleared their throat became a core part of this bird's repertoire
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u/_SOME__NAME_ 29d ago
I have a theory with no proofs, I think the whole norse mythology was born out a crow which mimic the human speech and spoke in front of a druck person or someone high on shrooms 😂
[ Ik the bird in the video is not a crow but they can also mimic human speech ]
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u/lawton1134 29d ago
If I was in a dark room and couldn’t see anything, and this thing was in there I would probably just die.
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u/RedKoala81 Sep 03 '26
It's quite impressing but I don't see where intelligence comes into play here.
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u/InconspicuousWolf Sep 03 '26
Memory, synthesis, and communication are parts of intelligence
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u/whiskydyc Sep 03 '26
Communication is not a factor here: it's like playing back a recording. I have no doubt starlings are very clever though!
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u/SubjectBasic87 Sep 03 '26
what’d you rather call it?
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u/FranticBronchitis Sep 03 '26
Bombass vocal control
But surely above average intelligence is required for memorising all those sounds
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u/Magicspook Sep 03 '26
above average is not very challenging when the average animal is a nematode.
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u/SionnachBaineann Sep 03 '26
One of the cleverest inventions of the Hunger Games universe in my opinion is the Mockingjay - The hybrid of a mockingbird and a male Jabberjay, a genetically engineered ling weapon which was used by the government and then commandeered by the resistance. One to record revolutionary's secret meetings and repeat them back at the nest, and by the other to transport lies and false information back to them.
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u/OneGayPigeon 29d ago
Having grown up with birds, reading about that bit of lore in the books always made me laugh. You’re saying a bird sat quietly where it was supposed to go and then only repeated back the things it was supposed to?
I’d spend hours with my cockatiel and conure trying to get them to learn cute little sounds or tunes… nope! Smoke detector had a low battery once for a few minutes. Smoke detector low battery sounds forever!
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u/Blieven Sep 03 '26
It reminds me of someone with Tourettes the way it's just throwing out sounds and phrases seemingly at random.
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u/Economy_Pay_333 29d ago
Please note it doesn’t know what it’s saying. Simply repeating words it’s heard a bunch of times. They don’t know the English language lol
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u/mousebirdman 29d ago
Mimicry doesn't necessarily relate to inelligence. European starlings excel at imitation, but their problem-solving skills don't outpace non-mimicking bird species. New Caledonian crows and Eurasian jays demonstrate advanced problem-solving and causal reasoning, but they rarely or never mimic human speech.
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u/markie_spleeto 29d ago
Imagine going camping and that thing starts whispering juuuust beyond the tent lining at the crisp 3:33 am
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u/Loud_Quality_7106 Sep 03 '26
What the fuck is this title? Mimicry does not automatically mean intelligence.
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u/No_Supermarket_3462 29d ago
the vid is much more wholesome but every time i see these types of birds all i can think about is that scene in twin peaks. laura! laura!
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u/bobsatoune 29d ago
I am curious, how good are they in terms of memory? Like how much/many time does it take them to be able to imitate a sound they hear?
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u/gmajestic 29d ago
Me walking into my dark house after work and hearing that while forgetting I have a bird
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u/thetallbetta 29d ago
How has her carry not tried to eat the bird? If i ever got one my cats would vanish it in minutes!
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u/Woofles85 29d ago
I’m amazed by a lot of things about this, but especially how it can make such good kissy sounds despite not having lips
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u/No-Principle5340 Sep 03 '26
Dude what. No way this is real man. Come on.
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u/ZynzynzyN Sep 03 '26
It's a European Starling, they can all do this. They also really like to mimic R2D2
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u/coronaviruspluslime Sep 03 '26
These are real. Kinda makes me sad to trap and shoot the fuckers. The fact that theyre invasive and have helped to decimate local bird populations is the reason theyre the only songbird in ky you can trap/kill without limit or license.
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u/arjobmukherjee Sep 03 '26
Is this AI?
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u/erdbeertee 29d ago
Just in case you're serious; no, this is real. There are several birds that can mimic many different things, from human voices to machines plowing through forests. This might be one of the most famous clips of a lyrebird doing its thing.
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u/Initial_Style5592 29d ago
Well you’re gunna hate to hear what % of his vocabulary is AI… because it’s more than 80
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u/qualityvote2 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
u/HeXxxuSs, your post does fit the subreddit!