Herding birds, interspecific communication, and translations

Abstract

Robert Godfrey's 1941 publication drawing on schoolboys’ essays, in Xhosa, Bird-Lore of the Eastern Cape Province described two species of birds as herding stock by whistling to them. These were the umcelu (wagtail species of the Motacilla genus) and intengu (fork-tailed drongos, Dicrurus adsimilis). It is possible to take this extraordinary claim about herding birds seriously. The birds have reputations throughout eastern and southern Africa for interactions with both people and stock. Vernacular and ecological knowledge provides a context for these claims: the honeyguide (Indicator indicator) and sentry birds – for example, the go-away bird (Corythaixoides leucogaster) – are widely recognized in Africa as effective interspecies communicators. Ecological studies of ‘heterospecific alarm calls’ have confirmed that birds and mammals communicate with each other. Research suggests, however, that if drongos and wagtails do whistle to herds and flocks, they seek advantages other than the safety of stock. Experimental research on this interspecies network would reveal more about participation by and affordances to stock, birds, and insects. But, what the boys say about their engagement with this network can be taken seriously. Social worlds theory, with its emphasis on collaboration without consensus and imperfect translations, supports a discussion of networks of interspecies communication.