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Birds are all around us - calling, singing, communicating in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Their sounds are complex, often beautiful, and yet the meaning behind them remains largely unknown.

Listener David, who grew up in rural Guinea, has a question: when he mimics the call of the Black-Headed Weaver, is he actually speaking to them? And if so, what might he be saying in their language?

Presenter Caroline sets off to explore the science of avian communication. At the Konrad Lorenz Research Centre in Austria, researchers are decoding the language of geese, whose seemingly simple ‘honks’ turn out to convey a range of meanings, from alarm calls to triumphant calls of celebration.

In Florida, Caroline meets Jennifer Cunha and her parrot Ellie, whose remarkable abilities have astonished researchers at MIT and Northeastern University. Raised from a chick, Ellie learned the alphabet, then words, then entire concepts. She can express emotions, talk about the weather and even enjoys reading and writing, boasting a vocabulary of over 1,500 words.

But what does it actually mean when a bird communicates with us? Can birds conceptualise what they’re communicating? To answer this, Caroline speaks with Professor Thomas Bugnyar from the University of Vienna, who studies the evolution of cognition in animals, in particular a long-term study with captive Ravens – some of the most intelligent birds on Earth.