BIRDSONG HAS DELIGHTED humans and inspired musicians throughout history, and with about 10,000 avian species, we’re treated to a great deal of variation. Many birds (like ducks and ostriches) are stuck with the relatively simple sounds they’re born with. But the so-called songbirds (robins, cardinals, blue jays, etc.) learn sophisticated vocal skills—in ways that show surprising similarities to our own species. Read on!
THEY START WITH BABBLING
Though songbirds’ brains are an awful lot smaller than human brains, we have something special in common. We learn to vocalize by copying our parents, a rarity in nature— not even chimpanzees, some of our closest relatives, do that. Baby songbirds can make basic noises at birth, mainly begging for food (sound familiar?), but to master their song, it takes months or years of practice.
FEMALE BIRDS SING TOO
Until very recently, scientists thought that song was a primarily male behavior. But now it’s clear that female songbirds also sing, and for the same reasons—mostly to defend territories and attract mates. (This revelation largely came about through work from women researchers, another argument for having diverse scientists doing science, but we digress.)
THEY DEVELOP DIALECTS
Even though species share a general repertoire, there’s geographic variation in exactly how the songs sound. That’s because some songbirds continue to learn throughout their lives, picking up notes they hear from friends and neighbors. Sometimes they just make up new notes themselves! This process, the same one that occurs in humans, causes song sparrows in New England to sound just a bit different from their counterparts in the Southeast—like dialects. Insert joke about parking the car in Harvard Yard here!
THEY COPY A BUNCH OF NOISES
Many birds will also mimic the songs of other bird species…and even random sounds they hear. (This may be a way to attract mates.) In North America, the most famous example is the appropriately named mockingbird, which may have woken you up once or twice as it imitated a car alarm. Probably the most extreme example, however, is the Australian lyrebird, which can expertly imitate the sounds of a camera shutter, chainsaw, and more.
Christopher Balakrishnan, PhD, is the founder of the Nerd Nite event series and coauthor of the new book How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi.
Illustration by Brett Ryder
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