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Birds Can Keep the Beat
Some birds have a finely-tuned sense of rhythm.
© Nick Athanas
The Scaly-breasted Wren lives in Central and South America, and has a lengthy song of whistled notes separated by pauses. By analyzing song recordings, researchers found that Scaly-breasted Wrens can precisely measure out pauses — even as they increase to several seconds. The findings suggest that the wrens have an internal metronome as accurate as a highly-trained musician playing a solo.
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BirdNote®
Birds Can Keep the Beat
Written by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
Many birds’ songs have a unique rhythm. Whether it’s the steady trill of a junco —
[Dark-eyed Junco song]
or the graceful melody of a meadowlark —
[Chihuahuan Meadowlark song]
the tunes wouldn’t sound right without their characteristic beat. And researchers have shown that some birds have a better sense of rhythm than many humans.
The Scaly-breasted Wren lives in Central and South America, and has a lengthy song of whistled notes separated by pauses.
[Scaly-breasted Wren song]
With each whistle, the pause increases by about half a second. When the pause reaches about 10 seconds, the song repeats. For many species, humans included, it gets harder to tell how much time has passed as pauses get longer.
But by analyzing song recordings, researchers found that Scaly-breasted Wrens can precisely measure out pauses and whistle just in time — even as the pauses increase to several seconds. The findings suggest that the wrens have an internal metronome as accurate as a highly-trained musician playing a solo.
[Music: Oscar Peterson "C-Jam Blues" excerpt]
We might be able to play more notes than the birds now, but they’ve been keeping the beat for much, much longer.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
###
Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
With thanks to Katie Meyer for this idea.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Dark-eyed Junco ML 352203561 recorded by Jeff Ellerbusch, Chihuahuan Meadowlark ML 56853 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller, and Scaly-breasted Wren song ML 60462 recorded by Gregory Budney.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote December 2022/2024
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# song-19-2022-12-14 song-19
Reference:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347222001567
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220719162122.htm
Conor Gearin
Writer