News tagged with sparrow
Brainy lizards pass test for birds
Tropical lizards may be slow. But they aren't dumb. They can do problem-solving tasks just as well as birds and mammals, a new study shows.
Jul 13, 2011 |
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Sparrows change their tune to be heard in noisy cities
Sparrows in San Francisco's Presidio district changed their tune to soar above the increasing cacophony of car horns and engine rumbles, details new George Mason University research in the April edition of ...
Apr 02, 2012 |
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Status symbols of house sparrows: High testosterone darkens their bill
(PhysOrg.com) -- The size of the black breast bib - the badge - and bill colour of male House Sparrows change over the course of the year. Such ornaments usually signal quality and dominance of a male to his ...
Jun 04, 2010 |
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Scientists learn much about humans from birds' singing lessons
Why wasn't this intruder getting the message? The lord of the manor had warned him repeatedly to back off, with threatening gestures and loud admonitions. But the trespasser just sat there - singing.
May 18, 2012 |
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For monogamous sparrows, it doesn't pay to stray (but they do it anyway)
It's quite common for a female song sparrow to stray from her breeding partner and mate with the male next door, but a new study shows that sleeping around can be costly.
May 22, 2012 |
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It takes two to tutor a sparrow
(PhysOrg.com) -- It may take a village to raise a child, and apparently it takes at least two adult birds to teach a young song sparrow how and what to sing.
Oct 21, 2009 |
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Research on Bird Song Could Lead to a Refinement of a Darwinian Theory
For Williams College biology professor Heather Williams, the songs birds sing are more than a pleasant part of a spring day. They are a window into how communication works in the natural world. A birdsong is more than just ...
Biology /
Jan 30, 2009 |
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Elaborate plumage due to testosterone?
(PhysOrg.com) -- In many bird species males have a more elaborate plumage than females. This elaborate plumage is often used to signal body condition, to intimidate rivals or to attract potential mates. In ...
Oct 21, 2011 |
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Scared of a younger rival? Not for some male songbirds
When mature male white-crowned sparrows duel to win a mate or a nesting territory, a young bird just doesn't get much respect.
Feb 08, 2012 |
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Bird songs change with environment
Just as a changing radio landscape has made it tough for Foghat to get much airplay these days, so it is for birdsongs according to new research published in The American Naturalist.
May 20, 2009 |
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Migrating birds can't control themselves
During the Spring and Fall migratory seasons, sparrows become significantly less capable of resisting temptation. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience investigated impulse control and sleep in Whi ...
Jul 28, 2010 |
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Bird song-sharing like verbal sparring
While singing the same songs as your neighbours may sound harmonious, research conducted at Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) suggests that song-sharing amongst song sparrow populations is actually ...
Aug 10, 2011 |
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Why the swamp sparrow is hitting the high notes
Birdsongs are used extensively as models for animal signaling and human speech, offering a glimpse of how our own communicating abilities developed. A new study by Adrienne DuBois, a graduate student at the ...
Biology /
Jan 09, 2009 |
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Parents' social problems affect their children -- even in birds
A recent study performed by Floriane Guibert and Cecilia Houdelier at the CNRS-University of Rennes in France, together with researchers at the INRA in Nouzilly, France and with Austrian scientists including Erich Mostl of ...
Dec 27, 2010 |
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Birdsong independent of brain size
(PhysOrg.com) -- The brains of all vertebrates display gender-related differences. In songbirds, for example, the size of the brain areas that control their singing behaviour could be linked to the size of ...
Jun 13, 2011 |
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