The attached video shows the Australian lyre bird, who (somewhat magically) mimics not only any other bird's call, but also the sounds of various human noises such as car alarms and camera shutters. According to David Attenborough's narration, the bird performs this mimicry in order to attract a mate, creating an extraordinarily complex and ultimately unique song out of the songs of "all the other birds" he hears. What is perhaps most interesting to me is that the female lyre bird is attracted not to the kookaburra or the sparrow or the chainsaw, but to the unique combination of their sounds reproduced by the male lyre bird.
Besides fueling my fascination with the vocal capabilities of various birds, this video causes me to think about human mimicry and social relations. All of our language and gestures arise from mimicry, first of our parents and then of other people, but it's hard to say whether this mimicry is equivalent to that of the lyre bird. We do not make car backfire noises to attract mates, but do we not amass knowledge and mannerisms (that we essentially copy) from dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people and other sources to impress others and prove our intelligence or wit or creativity. Is uniqueness, then, well-ordered or unusually fluent mimicry? Are we original only in how we combine what we've copied?
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