By comparing responses to natural and manipulated songs, researchers can learn which features are important in perception. Many birds respond to playback of a typical song of their species as if a territorial intrusion were occurring-they approach the speaker from which the song is playing, fly around the sound’s source to look for the intruder, and emit their own threatening calls or songs. One of the classic ways to test perception in birds in the wild is through so-called playback experiments, in which investigators play songs to birds and measure their behavioral response.
Beyond Melodyīirdsong researchers have known since at least the 1960s that birds hear song differently than we might expect. Moreover, birds appear to listen most closely not to the melodies that catch our ears but rather to fine acoustic details in the chips and twangs of their songs that lie beyond the range of human perception. These descriptions also parallel the ways we mark the relations among words in human syntax or among notes in musical compositions.īut what do the birds think about all these features? How does birdsong sound to them? Recent research that my colleagues and I have conducted, along with work from a growing number of other scientists around the world, has revealed that birdsong sequences do not sound to birds like they do to us. In this way, we can measure potentially important aspects of song, such as the number of syllable types in a bird’s repertoire or the patterns in which phrases are arranged. We then group the syllables into sequences called phrases or motifs that have characteristic rhythms and tempos. Getting deeper into the lingo for a moment, when researchers analyze birdsong, we usually break it down into smaller units, termed notes or syllables. The very terminology researchers and laypeople alike use to talk about birdsong reflects the musical and languagelike way it strikes our ears. But when I refer to birdsong, I mean those longer, more complicated sounds as opposed to the short cheeps and peeps. For instance, some species have songs that are simpler than their calls.
These definitions are by no means clear-cut. Modern researchers categorize it in contrast to bird calls, which are usually shorter, simpler, innately known and used for a more diverse set of functions, such as signaling about predators and food. We discern distinct melodies linking the clanks and buzzes of Song Sparrow songs, sentencelike structure in the Red-winged Blackbird’s pronouncement of conk-la-ree! and a cheery whistle in the wide-open-beaked songs of the White-throated Sparrow.īirdsong, which has intrigued scientists since Aristotle’s time, is traditionally defined as the long, often complex learned vocalizations birds produce to attract mates and defend their territories. When we humans hear birdsong, which many have appreciated more than ever during the pandemic, we can’t help but think about parallels to human music and language.
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