You didn't know that about the singing of birds

– Skills, for example nightingales, kolibers or parrots are not innate, but passed down from generation to generation. If the freshly hatched Nightingale was separated from representatives of its genre, he would not be able to sing the characteristic “song” for him. The bird learns the “language”, which is used by the surrounding individuals, just as the child learns to speak from his parents – explained the habilitated doctor Michał Budka, an ecoacustic from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Cognition.

The young males of the nightingales from the moment of hatching, i.e. from May, listen to older individuals and remember their songs, but they start to sing them only the following year. Some species learn shorter, but then they only repeat what they heard in the first months of life.

– But for example, starlings even at the age of six-seven are able to remember and repeat new sounds, only that then they have to throw away something that they have learned earlier. And usually the more different types of songs can sing a male, the more attractive it is for the female – said prof. Shed.

He mentioned that the nightinga waves into their songs with individual elements, taken from other genres. Masters in this field, scrubs, can remember extensive fragments of the singing of other birds, have an extensive repertoire, hundreds of different types of “syllables”. In turn, when analyzing the singing of the scales, you can say where a given male winter on the basis of imitated sounds of other species of birds, but also insects or frogs occurring in wintering grounds. Szpaki or jays willingly imitate other species of animals, e.g. forest, buzzard and even horses. Professor Budka suggested that such examples can be found on the Xeno-Canto platform, on which volunteers from around the world throw recordings.

Ecoacustic said that in the moderate zone they are sung mainly by males, and females speak less often and quieterly. The exception are, for example, female wardrobes, singing in the breeding season, or females of Rudzik singing in winter. Only some of the birds of moderate zone sing in duets – in Poland, for example, cranes or forest.

– However, there are many more in the tropics of birds of duoing birds, and their behavior varies. In some species, individuals form choirs, i.e. several males and several females sing together. There are also duets and choirs of individuals of the same sex – explained Ecoakustyk. He clarified that, for example, at Gorzyków in South America, several males sing one female together, while making mating dance. – Most often in such a herd there is one leader who copulates with most females. Others learn from him singing and dance, in the hope that they will eventually become leaders of another group – he said.

Some species of daytime birds also sing at night, although only in the moderate zone. A doctoral student of prof. Budki, Kinga Buda, who found about 50 such species.

The study also showed that the night singing draws the attention of predators: in about one third of the scientist, she noted a marten attack or a forest on the speaker.

– Night singing is therefore very risky for birds. In the city, it happens that in the morning they begin to concert, for example, scythes. This is because they have enough light to see a possible threat. In the forest, where it is quite dark at night, there is complete silence – explained the interlocutor.

He said that the exception are the nightingales, which they sing all night in the protection of the bushes – hidden among branches can hear the approaching predator.

Professor Budka urged to listen to birds and learn to recognize their singing. The free Birdnet application, created by scientists from the ornithological laboratory at the Cornell University (USA) and the Faculty of Computer Science of the Polytechnic in Chemnitz (Germany), can help with this.

– Spring, and especially the turn of April and May, is the perfect time to listen to bird vocalization. The first genres come to us, it is easier to hear their single songs now than at the top of the breeding season, when much more genres sings. Often with students we go out in the morning before classes to the park or go for a walk alone to listen to birds. And I still enjoy it – admitted the professor.

Works of prof. Michał Budka and his colleagues about bird duets and night singing appeared, among others in the magazines “Scientific Reports”, “Journal of Ornithology” and “Plos One”.