Scientists identify building blocks behind birdsong diversity

This is fascinating. Scientists crack the code of the language of birds. With a warning for the environment at the end.

Scientists find building blocks of birdsong's 'spectacular diversity.' 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'A key finding was that the environment the birds evolved in - from tropical forest to temperate landscape - shaped how they "composed" their songs. So birds adapted for tropical forests use different acoustic building blocks, or motifs, to those from temperate regions.' 1/2

Alternative cover art for our @nature.com paper, now out in print: We identify a synaptic locus for birdsong learning and show the circuit can be tuned to speed learning—but at a cost. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Photo: Simon Griffith #neuroskyence 🧪 #academicsky

I had the pleasure to write a commentary in Science about the very comprehensive paper by @quentinbacquele.bsky.social et al. (same issue), on the factors influencing birdsong across the world. Link to my commentary: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/..., originally paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

BBC coverage of the xeno-cantified Science paper: bbc.com/news/article... #bioacoustics

Fascinating article, the beauty of birdsong is linked to "the #environment the birds evolved in", it is important as natural sound connects us to nature and if you destroy their home their song could be lost.

It is said there are only seven stories that all humans tell. Well, the birds have us beat… by one.

The delight of early morning, wake-up birdsong is one of the highlights of living rural for me, and his made me want to see and hear the evidence, Also one of the first uses of AI that I grudgingly found agreeable, despite my absolute distrust of it generally. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"And if a bird in a forest has a specific song, if you destroy the forest, then that song may not be adapted any more to the new environment." - Quentin Bacquelé www.bbc.com/news/article...

The building blocks of birdsong 🎶 "Birdsong is one of the natural world's most sophisticated forms of sound-based communication." "... each song is made up of combinations of these motifs: three types of trill, three types of whistle, chaotic notes and harmonies." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Going for a song isn’t cheep cheep. Eight building blocks from 116,000 songs of 3,000 species of songbird collected by 1,000s of volunteers and analyzed by a French team using AI shows different habitats shape different birdsong. Destroy the habitat, destroy the song. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

💭 Scientists find building blocks of birdsong’s ‘spectacular diversity’ French researchers analyzed over 116,000 birdsongs from 3,000+ species and identified eight fundamental sound motifs (three trills, three whistles, chaotic notes, harmonies) underlying all birdsong div… → read the full entry