This is Bert Note.

This northern mockingbird may not have much in common with us humans,

but we can both learn to make complex sounds, like that impressive song, or the words I'm saying right now.

Since this vocal learning skill is uncommon in the animal

world, scientists who study human speech often start with birds that learn to sing, says

neurobiologist Eric Jarvis. To investigate the evolutionary origins of vocal learning, his team

looked for clues in DNA and brain structures of humans and birds.

We found that parrots, songbirds, and hummingbirds each independently evolved their vocal learning abilities,

just like humans evolved it independently of those three bird groups.

So in the last 65 million years, three bird groups came up with

an independent solution to the vocal learning ability, but using the same genes.

These genes and the brain regions where they're active are associated with the muscles

in our voice boxes. What happened is that in order to control the vocal organ, you need a very tight integration

between hearing, producing, and imitating sound.

For humans, and some parents, that tightly integrated vocal learning system comes with

the bonus.

The ability to learn how to dance

to a beat of music.

So that's the benefit of speech.

The ability to dance.

Learn more about the evolution

of birds' song and speech

...