Human language is our tool to communicate just by stringing words together. This assembling process is the syntax, a codex that enables us to express elaborate messages based on how we arrange words and phrases.

Lots of animals communicate vocally, combining otherwise meaningless sounds to make useful words. But a new study led by Toshitaka N. Suzuki, a Japanese biologist, reveals that the Japanese great tit (Parus minor), a small East Asian songbird, uses syntax to achieve its communicative goals.

It is the first time that evidence of articulate language is found in any animal but us.

"This study demonstrates that syntax is not unique to human language, but also evolved independently in birds," says co-author David Wheatcroft, researcher at Uppsala University, in a statement about the study.