How do birds distinguish their partners from other birds of the same species?
JimZ
An Emperor penguin for example, can distinguish its chick's cries from the thousands of other penguins. When you analyze the sounds, they are all very similar to us so it is amazing that they can do it. They are very good at distinguishing very slight differences. Some birds go through rituals when they meet and this may be to help them identify each other. I am a pretty avid birder and I have taken shots of lots of birds. Last weekend I took three townsend's warblers and they were all quite distinct from each other. Here is the best looking one next to the worst.
Elaine M
Same as we do, visually. Not everyone looks identical to us. It's the same way for birds.
Ray
The same way humans distinguish their partners from other mammals of the same species. Maybe you think they all look alike; maybe they think we all look alike. Most birds have eyes that can see ultraviolet, they can see better then mammals. If with our poor eyesight we can tell the difference between each other on eye sight alone, birds can do the same.
yimi
Same as we do, visually. Not everyone looks identical to us. It's the same way for birds.
Anonymous
They do that using sound. Even though birds of the same species sound similar, their calls are different enough individually that individual recognition between mates or even between parents and young are possible. A penguin for example can tell which chick is his or hers by listening to calls. They can tell their own chick even though there may be thousands of them in the area. Birds in general also have excellent eyesight with excellent detail vision, so they can often recognize other individuals by sight alone.
MARK
Because although you may think all birds of the same species look alike they do not. They are different and they can recognise each other. For birds vision is probably their most important sense as it is for us. If you study a particular group of animals long enough even you would be able to identify individuals.
Anonymous
Do they *need to*? Smell, Feather placement, size, stature, tweets.
Matt
LOL, we think they all look alike; they think we all look alike.
David
They tweet each other by birdy names.
Robert
The one whistling complaints about the crappy small nest is recognized by the overworked male returning from a long day whitewashing cars