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Bird song is a popular subject in poetry. Famous examples inspired by bird song include the 1177 Persian poem "The Conference of the Birds", in which the birds of the world assemble under the wisest bird, the hoopoe, to decide who is to be their king. [161]
Although most birds acquire song learning within the first year, brown-headed cowbirds have a delayed sensitive period, occurring approximately one year after hatching. [35] This may be an adaptation to prevent the young birds from learning the songs from the foreign bird species.
Vocal learning is the ability to modify acoustic and syntactic sounds, acquire new sounds via imitation, and produce vocalizations. "Vocalizations" in this case refers only to sounds generated by the vocal organ (mammalian larynx or avian syrinx) as opposed to by the lips, teeth, and tongue, which require substantially less motor control. [1]
The organ is a solid, bony structure lined with a film of membranes which air passes through as the songbird calls. While the song boxes of songbirds vary in size and intricacy, this does not necessarily determine the songbird's ability to voice their song. Researchers believe this has more to do with the length of the windpipe. [8]
The other way birds acquire their appearance is through structural colors, which result from the interaction of light with the microscopic structures in feathers.
Bird meanings and symbolism are open to wide interpretation and can vary across cultures and traditions. Popularly, owls are associated with wisdom, and doves are widely associated with peace.
It has been observed that young songbirds acquire their ability to produce song from imitation of adult birds. [20] There seems to be a critical period for song learning. In one experiment, they compared birds raised in isolation, (this involved isolation from other birds as well as the vocalizations of other birds), with those raised in a ...
In males, however, most song system neurons respond maximally to the sound of the bird's own song, even more than they do to the tutor's song or any other conspecific song. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] In HVC, neurons switch from responding best to tutor song (35–69 days post-hatch) to responding best to the bird's own song (>70 days post-hatch). [ 8 ]