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Comment by Aachen | Hacker News Reader

Number one question when reading this headline: which animals are in the list? Number two question: what does a laughing bird even look like? What do they laugh at? You want to see it, of course. There's none of that, bit of a disappointing article.

On the bright side, the article this article is about seems to contain at least the list of animals, see table 1: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/from-apes-to-birds-t...

This table of 65 animals is "play vocalizations", though, and includes animals like domestic cats and dogs. I've never seen a cat laugh at a situation, in real life or on the Internet, so it seems this arstecchnica article about "laughing animals" should be taken with a few grains of salt and is really more about playing and making a noise to indicate that they're playing (and shouldn't feel attacked) to their playmates.

I do like that humans are categorized with the great apes.

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Linking the image / table referenced: https://www.tandfonline.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/t...

My pet parrot definitly laughs. It sounds like a staccato clucking sound. He usually does it when he's lying on my belly playing with me. He lays on his back, both feet grabbing my finger (or fingers) and play-biting my finger with his beak. I've gotten to where I can do a pretty good imitation which I do when he's clearly playing. (he does sometimes get too agressive in his play, and I usually stop clucking when he pushes too far, but I doubt that registers with him.)

EDIT: Just for completeness, he's a Mitered Conure. Conure's are probably the most gregarious parrots I've encountered.

We have a cat they we allow outside sometimes. She doesn't have a sense of humour, but the local birds certainly act differently when she's outside. They sit just out of reach and squawk loudly at her. It doesn't seem to be a fear response. It could be a defensive mechanism of actively and continually watching the potential threat. But in my mind they're taunting and laughing at her.

There are bird species that use alarm calls to alert the presence of predators [1,2], some (including blue jays, another corvidae) even exhibit mobbing behaviour and will gang up (cooperating with other species!) to attack the predator [3].

[1] https://www.bl.uk/the-language-of-birds/articles/alarm-and-m...

[2] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/nuthatche...

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior)

Here's the url for the list: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/09524622.2021...

Not an example from the wild, but our parrot (a caique) likes to laugh when he accomplishes a goal or encounters an unexpected challenge. I’m sure a lot of his use of laughter stems from living with humans though.

I have a caique that has a dark sense of humor. He laughs when he hears a put down or when something bad happens. His timing is hilarious.

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