Researchers from Australia National University studied how information flows in communities of birds. They discovered that birds teach their young how to eavesdrop. Rather than using this skill to gossip, like humans are inclined to, birds eavesdrop on the calls of other, predatory species. Researchers described their experiment with wild Fairy-wrens in Current Biology:

We trained individuals by broadcasting unfamiliar sounds while simultaneously presenting gliding predatory birds. Fairy-wrens in the experiment originally ignored these sounds, but most fled in response to the sounds after two days’ training. The learned response was not due to increased responsiveness in general or to sensitization following repeated exposure and was independent of sound structure. Learning can therefore help explain the taxonomic diversity of eavesdropping and the refining of behavior to suit the local community.

From Magrath, R., Haff, T., Mclachlan, J., & Igic, B. (n.d.). Wild Birds Learn to Eavesdrop on Heterospecific Alarm Calls. Current Biology.  

(Photo by David Cook)