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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

A little bird told her: scientist wins $100,000 prize for decoding birdsong

Two finches with blue-grey heads, red beaks, and patterned wings perch closely together on a white rod
Elie observed and recorded the sounds the zebra finches made and classified the calls according to the situation and the bird that made them. Photograph: Wolfgang Forstmeier

A scientist who decoded the vocalisations that a bird uses to communicate has won a $100,000 prize for making progress towards a world in which humans can talk to the animals – without being met with a blank response.

Dr Julie Elie at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded the 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize for two-way interspecies communication after working out the 11 core calls in the zebra finch vocabulary and their meanings.

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