i've been reading a great book on bird intelligence. there's a whole chapter devoted to bird "speech" and language learning. it's absolutely fascinating and the answer is yes, birds have accents and dialects. they learn their songs in a way very similar to how we learn language.

the book is the genius of birds by jennifer ackerman

biŕds

Last week I covered a new owl type discovered via audio.

The corresponding paper had some analysis of the new owl vocalizations and compared them to 2 other Great Horned owl species/subspecies (depends who you ask...)

It discussed that bird calls are considered inherent to a species, so if a bird shows up with a new call, it seems to be classified as its own thing. I thought it was a very interesting read.

Owls are supposed to have about 30 vocalizations and they are believed to recognize each other's distinct voices.

I will have to check out that book. I loved What an Owl Knows from her.

i saw that one. i will probably pick that up next.

I listened to a bunch of her interviews when it came out, downloaded it, and ended up buying a copy to keep around.

Great and easy read for anyone who enjoys owls!