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The experience of hearing another bird singing apparently alters the song-learning genes of the learning bird through “epigenetic” effects; in this case, says London, through the action of histones—proteins that coat DNA and allow genes to be turned on or off.
“So what I think is happening,” says Jarvis, is that vocal learning is being selected against by predators—making it rare—but it’s being selected for by sexual selection. Maybe that’s how it worked in humans, too.”
Cities have been called learning machines. They may make smart birds even smarter.
