WHY DO BIRDS SING?
Most of the songs and bird calls are made by male birds to impress females. The songs originate from an organ called the syrinx, located in the chest, where the windpipe divides before it enters the lungs.
Some songs are learned from parents while others come from other birds. Some birds, such as the male lyrebird, can imitate all kinds of human-made sounds such as coughing, to sounds made by animals and other birds.
According to a report published on 18 October 2018 in the Journal Royal Society Proceedings B, birds, where there is a striking difference in the color of plumage between sexes, tend to sing dull songs.
The best vocalists are male birds whose plumage are not showy compared to their female counterparts. Birds that use displays of plumage to attract females such as the peacock produce unattractive songs.
Christopher Cooney from the University of Oxford and his colleagues authored the study. They recorded the songs of 518 species of birds and compared them with the color of their feathers.
Journal reference: Royal Society Proceedings B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1557
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