We understand now that birds are not just biologically distinct but culturally distinct—and that this is true even within a species. Birds learn styles of singing, bower building, playing that vary from one place, one population, to another. Palm cockatoos, kea, kelp gulls, great tits, superb fairy-wrens, and superb lyrebirds have taught us that birds use social learning to master different methods of foraging, to grasp the identity of their enemies, to master the dialect of their region or their own distinctive drumbeat. Clearly there is no one way to be a bird, just as there is no one way to
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