Further my skills

By H0tamer

Mimicry

We had a lovely walk with Caspar. Pretty cold wind, but the sun was shining. We even managed to let Caspar get some wet feet in the Gersprenz. Perhaps it helped that I stepped into the water too :).
Before we got to the water, and also afterwards, we noticed clear signs of mimicry. We heard a person whistling for the dog. However, apart from Caspar there was no other dog around and also no human being other than us. The only animals we saw where birds.
Later we heard birds chitchatting like starlings, but also a red kite. Again, no red kite around, neither in the tree (there was only one) nor in the air.
Obviously the birds were able to imitate other animals! I wasn't expecting them to be starlings. But my picture shows one of them. We rarely see them in this dress, with the big white spots. But it is obviously a normal colouring.
And yes, starlings can mimic a number of different sounds. Quote from Wikipedia: Starlings imitate a variety of avian species and have a repertoire of about 15–20 distinct imitations. They also imitate a few sounds other than those of wild birds.

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