Bird vocalization

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"Bird song" redirects here. For other uses, see Birdsong (disambiguation).

A male Blackbird (Turdus merula) singing. Bogense havn, Funen, Denmark. Blackbird song recorded at Lille, France (help·info)

Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, (relatively complex) songs are distinguished by function from (relatively simple) calls.

Contents [hide] 1 Definition 2 Anatomy 3 Function 4 Bird Language 5 Neurophysiology 6 Learning 6.1 Auditory feedback in bird song learning 6.2 Mirror neurons and vocal learning 7 Identification and systematics 8 Bird song and music 8.1 Bird song and poetry 9 See also 10 Cited reference 11 External links

[edit] Definition

Wing feathers of a male Club-winged Manakin, with the modifications noted noted by P L Sclater in 1860^[1] and discussed by Charles Darwin in 1871^[2]

The distinction between songs and calls is based upon complexity, length, and context. Songs are longer and more complex and are associated with courtship and mating, while calls tend to serve such functions as alarms or keeping members of a flock in contact.^[3] Other authorities such as Howell and Webb (1995) make the distinction based on function, so that short vocalizations such as those of pigeons and even non-vocal sounds such as the drumming of woodpeckers and the "winnowing" of snipes' wings in display flight are considered songs.^[4] Still others require song to have syllabic diversity and temporal regularity akin to the repetitive and transformative patterns which define music. It is generally agreed upon in birding and ornithology which sounds are songs and which are calls, and a good field guide will differentiate between the two.
Bird song is best developed in the order Passeriformes. Most song is emitted by male rather than female birds. Song is usually delivered from prominent perches although some species may sing when flying. Some groups are nearly voiceless, producing only percussive and rhythmic sounds, such as the storks, which clatter their bills. In some manakins (Pipridae), the males have evolved several mechanisms for mechanical sound production, including mechanisms for stridulation not unlike those found in some insects.^[5]
The production of sounds by mechanical means as opposed to the use of the syrinx has been termed variously instrumental music by Charles Darwin, mechanical sounds^[6] and more recently sonation.^[7] The term sonate has been defined as the act of producing non-vocal sounds that are intentionally modulated communicative signals, produced using non-syringeal structures such as the bill, wings, tail, feet and body feathers.^[7]