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"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
- Robert Heinlein

Automaton Birds  
  Mechanical fowl sing sweetly.  

As far as I know, the first reference to this in science fiction.

This imitative grove was so exquisitely managed, that the spectator could scarcely believe it artificial; and the music for dancing proceeded from its leaves, or from automaton birds placed carelessly amongst its branches.
Technovelgy from The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, by Jane Webb Loudon.
Published by Henry Colburn in 1828
Additional resources -

Compare to the artificial bird from The Artificial Bird (1929) by Karel Capek, the bird-like robots from Flamingo (1930) by CE Heller, robot bird from Invader on My Back, by Philip E. High, published by Ace Books in 1968 and to the metal birds from Vulcan's Hammer (1960), by Philip K. Dick.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
  More Ideas and Technology by Jane Webb Loudon
  Tech news articles related to The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
  Tech news articles related to works by Jane Webb Loudon

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