UM researchers decode complex chickadee chirps – The whole world is a-twitter…

The discovery of black-capped chickadees’ complex and sophisticated communication system by University of Montana researchers was featured June 23 in Science.

Those charming black-capped chickadees camped out in the backyard are no longer considered your average, sweet little songbirds.

Common they may be, but University of Montana researchers have discovered the little tweety birds have one of the most complex and sophisticated communication systems known to land animals.

UM professor Erick Greene and his former graduate student Chris Templeton are responsible for the finding, which has the science world atwitter.

The pair’s research was featured in the June 23 issue of Science, one of the world’s top research journals, and since the publication, stories about their work have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, on major Internet news sites and in newspapers in Pakistan, China and India.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/07/12/news/local/news03.txt