Is it your phone... or that bird?

I heard about this from Cnet's buzzcast, which heard about it from boingboing.net, which heard about it from mobcast, which heard about it from... well I don't know, but the story seems to have originated from the Indo-Asian News Service.

According to IANS, German ornithologists (guys who study birds), birds are learning to imitate cell phone ringtones! The phenomenom appears to be common among birds found in urban areas with jackdaws, starlings, and jays being the best at mimicing ring tones. According to the article, some birds are so good that they have actually managed to fool experienced bird watchers!

However, the birds aren't able to imitate the complex polyphonic ringtones (the ones that sound like music) or event the simplier tones that are of popular songs. They appear to be best with the common chimes that many people use. Although I'm sure that the folks at Nokia are thrilled that German birds are signing the Nokia tone found on all their phones!