but through God’s inspiration. In a verse of the Qur’an, God conveys
that He is supreme over all living creatures:
“… There is no creature
He does not hold by the forelock…”
(Qur’an, 11:56) All the won-
drous characteristics of birds that can imitate sounds are just part of
the evidence God shows to man so we may witness the magnifi-
cence of His creation.
The Physical Formation of Sound in Birds
You might assume that in order for a parrot to be able to imi-
tate the human voice—to use a person’s same spoken words, stress-
es and pronunciation—they must possess a larynx whose structure
is similar to a human’s. However, the structure of the human larynx
bears no resemblance to these creatures’ physical structures. The lar-
ynx, vocal cords, tongue, lips, palate and teeth that humans use in
speech are completely different in birds, and some do not exist at all.
But even though all birds lack these structures, still these species can
reproduce phrases spoken by humans—and in the same tones. If we
consider that a person without a tongue is unable to speak or that
we lose our voice if the vocal cords are damaged, it’s also worth con-
sidering that parrots, budgerigars, and mynahs, members of the
crow family, have completely different physical characteristics
which nevertheless enable them to talk in the same way as humans.
There are other differences between the systems that humans
and birds use to produce vocal sounds. We produce most sounds d
by expelling air from the lungs through the larynx. Different sounds
are created, according to the degree of vibration of the vocal cords.
The position of the tongue and lips and the flow of air through the
mouth or nasal cavity are only a few of the many other factors af-
fecting sound production. The pharynx, found in humans, lets the
tongue divide the vocal tract above the larynx into two cavities with
The Miracle of Talking Birds
22
