Humans move closer to speaking to animals as scientist decode what birds say

US scientist Julie Elie won the $100,000 (₹94 lakh) 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize after decoding what the 11 calls of the bird species 'zebra finch' mean. Elie revealed that the birds announce who they are and what they're doing, and confuse similar-meaning calls more than similar-sounding calls. She said she hopes her work is a step forward in human-animal communication.