This is Birdnode, laugh, and the world laughs with you as an old saying, it's true for

people and for some parrots too.

Kia's are large alpine parrots that live on New Zealand's south island.

They're the clowns of the parrot world, with olive green plumage, a red rump and a long

curved beak.

These social birds are intelligent and playful.

When they're playing, Kia's produce a distinct warbling call, a play call, that sounds

and functions much like contagious laughter in humans.

Scientists in Austria, who study how birds think and behave, wanted to test this idea.

They recorded captive Kia's making those warbling calls, then traveled to New Zealand where

they played the recordings for wild Kia's.

Kia's that had been playing began playing harder and even engaged birds that had not

been playing at all.

Scientists think the play call had an emotional effect on the birds.

Hearing it seemed to put them in a playful mood, even when they were alone.

What's your play call?

Is it a referee's whistle?

The last school bell?

Tell us what you hear on our Facebook page or at birdnote.org.

I'm Mary McCann.