Birds be gettin' down with ringtones

You know when you get one of those really annoying ringtones stuck in your head? Turns out we're not alone — our avian cousins are apparently afflicted with a similar disease, which additionally compels them to perform said ringtone in addition to their normal bird calls. German ornithologists are reporting confirmation that birds seem to have an uncanny knack for picking up and mimicing the popular ringtones in their regions, a phenomenon which has increaased due to rising numbers of mobile phone users as well as increased numbers of birds inhabiting urban environments. We imagine this is bound to make mating season that much more colorful. And in related news, the RIAA is mounting a series of suits against mobile phone users caught promoting piracy by broadcasting their ringtones to nearby pigeons.

[Scooge @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Sign up now for the RIAA snipa squad

[semi @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

i watched this program on BBC like 4 years ago with David Attenborough about these birds in New Zealand which copy any sound, and they were mimicking tree cutting equipment,

[Max @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

We're all safe until the crazy frog ringtone gets perfected by the birds. After that, God help us.

[Naveen Roy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Well, you guys seem to have got this info after BoingBoing....but i read ur site everyday!!! Cool

[cuby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

i can confirm this ... the people across my backyard in brooklyn have cockatoos which (loudly) run through a series of rings virtually indistinguishable from the real deal. somewhere, god is crying.

birds are bizarre ... i had a parrot when i was a kid, and although it would never learn what we wanted it to, it would start making strange sounds which we would only later recognize as that of a zipper closing, or of dry fingers turning the pages of a newspaper. ridiculous little creatures.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I read an article a while ago (Google will pop it up I'm sure) about how many birds around Nokia headquarters started mimicking the Nokia ringer, so this phenomenon is definitely not a new thing - but a totally hilarious one.

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Some of the birds in my vicinity have taken to imitating the mating call of the urban automobile.

[The Jeremy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I can't wait to hear a bird doing their own rendition of "In Da Club." And people online claim those ringtones aren't worth $2.50. :) In other funny bird stories, my cousin had a parrot who smoked out. Any other time, it was a mean little bird.

[skunky spliffmeister @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

this is like the birds outside my window that sound like the annoying car alarms taht cycle thru different sounds, like dooo weee dooo weee, reee reee reee reee, ennnngh ennnngh

[Jes @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I hear car-alarm birds all the time. They often keep me awake at night.

[Scott Squires @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Maybe we should start using more bird calls as ring tones so it'll all even out.