In a world-first, a scientist has successfully stored a digital image inside the brain of a bird, marking a remarkable development in alternative data storage. Benn Jordan, a musician and acoustic scientist, managed to imprint a drawing of a bird onto the memory of a European starling by converting the image into sound. Using a spectral synthesiser, which transforms images into sound waves represented visually as spectrograms, Mr Jordan created an audio file from the sketch and played it to the starling.
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The bird, named “The Mouth”, was able to memorise and replicate the unusual sound with such precision that the original image could be reconstructed using software. The resulting spectrogram of the bird’s whistle closely matched the initial drawing, effectively demonstrating that the bird had stored 176 kilobytes of data. Mr Jordan believes this could be the first documented instance of data being stored within an animal’s memory. The approach could, in theory, be used to encode various types of data — not just images, but also text — in bird song.
European starlings are already known for their impressive mimicry and complex vocal patterns, making them ideal candidates for this kind of experimental storage. Mr Jordan pointed out the potential for birds to carry vast amounts of information in their natural songs, suggesting it might be possible to store data outdoors simply by playing audio to local wildlife. Adult starlings can memorise up to 67 distinct songs, mainly to attract mates, providing a surprisingly capable memory system.
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As global data production continues to rise at an exponential rate, researchers are increasingly exploring unconventional storage methods. Microsoft, for instance, has trialled data preservation in DNA and glass. While audio signals have long been used for transmission, this new experiment opens the door to entirely novel ways of encoding and preserving digital information — through the melodies of songbirds.
