Even low-level PCBs change bird songs

It may not kill them outright, but low-level PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination disrupts how some birds sing their songs, report Cornell researchers.

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 an aggressive ...

World's largest natural sound archive now online

(Phys.org)—After 12 years of work, Cornell's Macaulay Library archive, the largest collection of wildlife sounds in the world, is now digitized and fully available online.

Birds have time-honored traditions, too

What makes human cultural traditions unique? One common answer is that we are better copycats than other species, which allows us to pass our habits and ways of life down through the generations without losing or forgetting ...

Male Java sparrows may 'drum' to their songs

Male Java sparrows may coordinate their bill-clicking sounds with the notes of their song, according to a study published May 20, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Masayo Soma and Chihiro Mori from Hokkaido University, ...

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 their song repertoires. ...

CT scans reveal birds' built-in air conditioners

Birds' beaks come in an incredible range of shapes and sizes, adapted for survival in environments around the world. But as a new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances reveals, there's even more to bird beaks than meets ...

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