Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Birds aren't all singing the same song. They
have dialects, too
Though humans say birds sing, birds, usually the
male, communicate to scare their neighbors or to attract female partners. But are
birds of the same species always sing the same song, or in the same way? Do
they have different languages or dialects like humans?
For some bird species, singing is innate, meaning
they sing in the same way in any place. But others seem to learn to sing from their
adult males in the environment so that they sing differently from the ones of
other territories. It sounds like having local dialects like humans. If such birds
are isolated from their peers, they don’t learn to sing their songs at all and keep
babbling like a baby. Interestingly, when they learn to sing from their adults,
they often make changes or mistakes. And those altered songs are passed through
generations in the territory and eventually become a local dialect.
We humans just enjoy the way birds are
singing but they sing for their purpose in their own way.
Enjoy reading the article, listening to their
songs, and seeing the sonograms to learn why and how birds learn to sing.
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