How does a cuckoo tell a fortune?

This kind of bird, once called "fortune teller" and "white-waisted fortune teller", is called white-waisted wenbird and belongs to the same group as sparrow. White-waisted wenbird also looks like a sparrow, but it is smaller, with chestnut brown upper body, gray lower body and light brown waist, so it is called white-waisted wenbird.

The white-waisted wenbird is clumsy, not afraid of people and easy to domesticate. It is precisely because of this feature that some people domesticate it to tell fortune. The method of domestication is as follows: first, raise and tame the birds, so that they will not fly away when released, and sometimes they will fly to their owners to peck at the grain. Then, the second step of training is "winning cards". If the white-waisted bird can win a card, it will be rewarded with food. In this way, over time, as soon as the white-waisted bird comes out of the cage, it will "hold the card" under the command of its owner (shouting or gesturing).

From this point of view, it is the same as a conditioned reflex process that birds can imitate human speech under human training. There are many examples of birds' conditioned reflex, which makes birds form some kind of conditioned reflex, both at home and abroad. For example, in ancient China, some people domesticated wrens to perform acrobatic performances. Li Shizhen also pointed out in the article "Clever Female Birds" in Compendium of Materia Medica that "little people and animals should be tamed and taught to play." In the former Soviet Union, some people used special teaching methods to train bird bands and let these "musicians" accompany the songs.

Under the training of a bird trainer, a waxbilled bird can perform missiles in the air and send candy, cigarettes and sharpened pencils to guests; A little golden-winged sparrow can draw water with a small bucket, open three drawers, hold pictures, pull a small red flag, "carry" a red lantern, and even put on a mask made of white shells to perform. Really funny!

Birds can also be used for production and national defense construction through training. For example, communication and photography of military pigeons, hunting assistance of falcons, etc. Even giant frigate birds can be trained to communicate.