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(CNN)Laura Molles is so attuned to birds that she can tell where birds of some species
are from just by listening to their song.
In the 60s and 70s, scientists put baby birds into sound isolation chambers to see if they
would be able to sing their songs, according to ornithologist David Luther.
Scientists found that some birds -- the ones that learn their songs -- couldn't sing at all.
"They just continued like a baby babble for their entire life," he said. Those birds are
known as "true song birds." In other birds, singing was innate. "When they came of age
they could just sing a perfect song no problem."
When birds are copying adults, scientists discovered, they sometimes make a mistake.
That mistake in turn is copied by other birds, and a local dialect develops. That means
that dialects can only exist in true song birds because they have a "learned oral
tradition," says Kroodsma.