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The male zebra finch, like many other songbirds, purposely attempts to sing the same song over and over without any variation, including in pitch and volume. Th
by dh5 9y ago
The male zebra finch, like many other songbirds, purposely attempts to sing the same song over and over without any variation, including in pitch and volume. This is because singing is primarily a courtship ritual, and females are attracted to high song stereotypy in males. A random song can be selected out of the hundreds sung daily and 80 to 90 percent of the other songs will be pretty much exactly the same.
While the research is of course impressive, it's a bit premature to extrapolate it to humans, or any other animal.
- iak8god 9y agoI'd love to see this tried on Mockingbirds, which mimic other bird songs but also a huge variety of sounds. The ones in my neighborhood even do car alarms, and rapidly cycle through a whole range of noises at the top of their little lungs. The repertoire seems to vary a lot from one bird to the next, I but was never even able to pick out a pattern for the one guy whose venue of choice every night all spring long this year was a bush right outside my bedroom window.
- dTal 9y agoAh, that does put it into perspective a bit. A sibling comment mentions trying it on mockingbirds; how about blackbirds, whose song never repeats (although it does show structure and they occasionally mimic)?