A team of Japanese researchers recently found that pet birds not only can imitate sounds, but can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech. The researchers did not use Japanese because it was the language the birds normally listen to. Instead, they exposed Java Sparrows to English and Chinese translations recorded by exchange students of two well-known Japanese novels, "The Tale of Genii" and "I Am a Cat". A bird sitting on a perch first listened to the English version and was only allowed to eat afterwards. Then the researchers played English and Chinese recordings at random and only allowed the bird to eat after hopping onto the perch with the English.