Saturday, January 01, 2011

Bird calls

I gather that some categories of bird calls owe their complexity to some simple structures in the bird's throat. A simple muscle maneuver easily produces a variety of different frequencies.

The team were able to replicate a number of bird-songs, such as Bengalese finches and vireos, and were able to closely model the song of zebra finches.
This doesn't make the calls less remarkable or beautiful; it just means that the instrument is both simple and versatile. And I expect birders and proprietors of bird feeders will be buying versions of these within a few months.

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