There are a few reasons why birds would hear - and "speak" - differently to us. One is their vocal apparatus. Whereas we have a larynx (voice box), birds have a syrinx (Greek for pan pipes).

That introduces a few differences such as speed, pitch, and how breathing affects their song. Their song then is related to what they can hear, which of course is also different to humans.

While we have an outer ear (pinna), birds have a funnel-shaped opening just behind and below their eyes. Curiously, sounds register at different frequencies on either side of their head, which helps them determine the origin of the sound.

In humans there are three middle ear bones, but birds (and reptiles) have a single columella, and the range of their hearing is typically 1000-4000Hz, making it lower than ours (20-20,000Hz).

The end result of all this is what the bird actually perceives and, since we can't ask them, we need to observe their behaviour.

Indeed, this has been done over several decades. Researchers play recorded songs to see how birds respond. They train the birds to peck a button when they detect features in the song the birds think are important.

One of the most striking results is that their songs contain fine detail that is far too quick for us to hear. In a landmark 2002 study, researchers found that zebra finches and budgerigars are aware of sound structures only milliseconds long.

More recent studies have found the surprising result that the birds were somewhat indifferent to what we'd consider changes to the melody. They seem to care more about absolute pitch than relative pitch. They were more concerned with the fine detail that we cannot hear.

That suggests that birds experience time at a different scale to us. If you watch them flitting through the undergrowth at high speed, that seems to make sense. A bird's reflexes are incredibly fast, well beyond what the best human could achieve.

It might make you wonder how other forms of life experience time. If a tree could see, we might look like scurrying insects or, to a fly, clumsy, lumbering behemoths.

The final frontier is something that cannot be measured and therefore is generally avoided by science: what does a bird feel as it sings its morning chortle? Is it really angry when it screeches at an intruder?

Do they listen to each other, thinking, "That's a nice tune"?

Listen to the Fuzzy Logic Science Show at 11am Sundays on 2XX 98.3FM.

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